A delegation of the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday started consultations with Hungarian officials on calling down the next tranche of a 11.7 billion euro stand-by loan, Irina Ivashchenko, head of IMF’s permanent office in Budapest, told MTI.
Ivashchenko said the talks were focussing on Hungary’s recent fiscal and financial developments and plans, but declined to disclose further details.
By now Hungary has drawn 8.6 billion euros in three tranches from the stand-by loan.
According to former information, the ongoing consultations are about the calling down of a 1.5-billion-euro tranche.
The stand-by loan is part of a 20-billion-euro package provided to Hungary by the IMF, the World Bank and the European Union in late October 2008 to bolster the economy, which has been hit hard by the global financial crisis.
Hungary’s economy has not been “hit hard by the global financial crisis”!
It has been hit hard by the continual mismanagement by the MSZP government under two less than capable leaders, in Gyurscany Ferenc, and Bajnai Gordon.
Billions of euros to help the ailing Hungarian economy? It will remain the sick man of Europe
whilst the commie-trained politicians of whatever persuasion are allowed to impose their corrupt practices on a gullible nation.
@Forditas. I agree with you that the global crisis didn’t cause HU’s problem; but there is a link to the country’s woes, albeit the opposite. The country actually averted its own meltdown by “hiding” inside the worldwide “meltdown” and thereby finding new sources of funding.
All this has done is forestall the impending collapse. When the financial crisis abates, IMF (and other) loans granted on favourable conditions will too; but will the HU internal imbalances have been fixed? Recent remedies put forward by Bajnai don’t look like they’ll be support by the population from which he deliberately chose not to ask for a mandate (e.g. hold elections).
One of the biggest ploys is to offset the money allocated for local gov’t by telling local authorities to tax property – but this is hampered by a) nationally imposed cut-off point that sees only 20% of the population footing the bill for the rest of the country; b) a lack of infrastructure & systems for implementation (so every council will have to figure it out/staff it on its own – adding yet more costs).
While this means there’ll be “more” money in the kitty to pay off national debt, when local councils stop paying their remaining staff the picture won’t be pretty.
Right now, external investors seem to have forgotten their fears and have returned to buying HU bonds. But what happens when the news turns sour, and money has to be re-directed back to staving off the failure of the town councils?
Hungary has been “collapsing” for the past 1,113 years, at least. It will continue “collapsing” for the next 1,000 years as well, we can probably safely predict. The rest is just minor nuisance in the flotsam of world history. In other words – no worries, Maties.
Fantron/Rolrox. Both interesting observations.
Hungary exists at the moment on “bail out” packages courtesy of the EU and IMF. America and Britain have large amounts of cash invested here, also.
Slowly but surely Hungary is loosing complete control of everything. The politicians are useless as well as corrupt. The provinces are “dead in the water”. Councils have even less money for next year, and Bajnai seeking to get them money via real estate tax is, quite frankly, hilarious.
Hungary has great potential but continually squanders the opportunities by voting in rogues
and expecting them to succeed. When, in fact, all they do is line their own pockets whilst the country
appears as a blob on the European Union, map.
An expensive one, at that!
@ Freefall, whereas I am not quite sure where you and Mr. Rolodex live at the moment, I happen to reside approximately 9,000 kilometers from Hungaria.
So, these severe country-specific problems of the magyars affect me somewhat less than those folks who, for some unknown reason, happen to be present day residents of Magyarland. Not that it’s an excuse or anything….