If the government fails to guarantee deep cuts to budget spending, market pressures will do the job for it, a former president of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) told public television late on Sunday evening.
“We are paying for the price of the irresponsible economic policy conducted in the period 2001-2006,” said Gyorgy Suranyi.
The ongoing financial crisis is hitting countries to a different extent; if the vulnerability of the Czech Republic is 100, then Hungary is between 130 and 140, he said.
Suranyi, who headed NBH in 1990-1991 and from 1995 to 2001, said that the spending cuts should affect central and local administration costs, pensions, welfare benefits and education alike.
He added that spending cuts would make room for tax reform, which help Hungary to maintain the current level of employment or possibly stimulate job-creation, he said.