tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16 2010-03-18T13:10:21Z Movable Type Publishing Platform 4.01 tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18782 2010-03-18T13:00:43Z 2010-03-18T13:10:21Z

Houses abandoned by their foreign owners in South-Eastern Hungary are being invaded by rats, blighting the surrounding villages, writes penzcentrum.hu....

damone Houses abandoned by their foreign owners in South-Eastern Hungary are being invaded by rats, blighting the surrounding villages, writes penzcentrum.hu. According to the portal, around the middle of the last decade numerous houses and lots in Somogy County's picturesque Koppányvölgy valley were purchased by Austrian, German, Dutch and Swiss nationals. While some of these foreigners stayed and even assimilated, many have since cut and run, allowing vermin to take their place.]]> Residents are said to be waiting for the local authorities to do something about the problem, but the latter say that trying to find foreign owners who bought and then moved away would be a waste of time. No word yet if there is any similar trend in other foreigner-invested parts of the Hungarian property market. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18775 2010-03-18T09:40:42Z 2010-03-18T09:41:29Z

Hungary has been ranked 22nd among the 27 EU members in terms of innovation in a survey by the European...

damone Hungary has been ranked 22nd among the 27 EU members in terms of innovation in a survey by the European Commission. "Hungary is in the group of 'moderate innovators' with an innovation performance well below the EU27 average but a rate of improvement above that of the EU27," the Commission said in a statement for the release of the European Innovation Scoreboard 2009 (EIS), a ranking compiled each year since 2001. Hungary is relatively strong, compared to its average performance, in the economic success of innovation in employment, exports and sales, but it is weak in the areas of intellectual property rights (IPR) generated in the innovation process and balance of payments from technology, as well as in terms of the number of firms that have introduced innovations onto the market or within their organisations, covering technological and non-technological innovations, the Commission said. Over the past five years, the availability of financing for innovation projects and the support of governments for innovation activities has narrowed, and the number of companies introducing innovations has dropped, particularly because of a big fall in venture capital, according to the survey. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18774 2010-03-18T09:37:42Z 2010-03-18T09:38:25Z

Hungarian telecommunications company Magyar Telekom and U.S. computer-networking company Cisco Systems agreed on Tuesday to establish a joint, HUF 50m...

damone Hungarian telecommunications company Magyar Telekom and U.S. computer-networking company Cisco Systems agreed on Tuesday to establish a joint, HUF 50m (EUR 190,058) innovation center in Budapest, the business daily Napi Gazdasag reported on Wednesday. The innovation center, which will focus on development and testing of IP network solutions and virtual data-center technology for corporate users, will open at the beginning of the summer at the location of Magyar Telekom's system-integrations unit, KFKI. Magyar Telekom and Cisco will split the cost of the investment evenly. Magyar Telekom President-CEO Christopher Mattheisen told the newspaper that the center's initial developments would likely be introduced to Hungary's business-communications market this year. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18772 2010-03-18T09:34:47Z 2010-03-18T09:35:21Z

The forint strengthened to nearly a 15-month high on Wednesday's interbank market, trading at 261.43 against the euro shortly before...

damone The forint strengthened to nearly a 15-month high on Wednesday's interbank market, trading at 261.43 against the euro shortly before 6 p.m., compared to a Tuesday-afternoon rate of 263.87. The forint last firmed past 262 against the euro during the final week of 2008. On Monday, the forint transcended the strong side of the 265-276 range in which it had been trading against the euro since August 2009. Dealers say that a pledge on Tuesday from the finance ministers of the eurozone countries to provide financially besieged Greece with loans, if needed, has mitigated fears among traders that a domino effect might sweep through the zone's periphery, thus providing the forint with a boost. Dealers add that traders have, moreover, concluded that some central and eastern European countries, including Hungary, have greater growth potential than some of their eurozone peers. The dollar commanded 189.98 forints on Wednesday morning, compared to a Tuesday-afternoon rate of 191.80. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18771 2010-03-18T09:28:36Z 2010-03-18T09:29:03Z

Hungary's construction output dropped 13.5pc yr/yr in January after a 6.2pc drop in December according to both adjusted and unadjusted...

damone Hungary's construction output dropped 13.5pc yr/yr in January after a 6.2pc drop in December according to both adjusted and unadjusted figures, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Thursday. Seasonally adjusted output fell 12.3pc after a rise in December. Commenting the drop KSH noted that January output in the sector is about 60pc of the monthly average and January was more wet and cold than usual. Output in the building construction segment was down a sharp 21.0pc yr/yr from an already low base a year earlier, and fell a seasonally adjusted 12.5pc from December. Civil engineering output rose 1.2pc yr/yr after decreases in the previous two months. January output in the segment fell 9.4pc from December according to seasonally adjusted figures. Except for March and June, construction output fell yr/yr each month of last year. Full-year output was down 4.3pc. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18773 2010-03-18T08:36:03Z 2010-03-18T09:36:27Z

The government decided last week to introduce stricter rules for calculating the "total cost of borrowing" (thm) indicator used by...

damone The government decided last week to introduce stricter rules for calculating the "total cost of borrowing" (thm) indicator used by Hungarian lenders, government spokesman Domokos Szollar said at a press conference on Wednesday. Lenders will be required to include third-party costs, such as broker fees, when calculating the indicator from June 11, Mr Szollar said. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18759 2010-03-17T09:30:55Z 2010-03-17T09:32:21Z

It's no secret that retail sales are weak in Hungary. But a new survey by market research organization GFK Hungária...

damone sales of vinegar rose because people are using it in place of more expensive cleaning products. Gulp. [inforadio.hu] ]]> tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18758 2010-03-17T09:09:52Z 2010-03-17T09:11:21Z

There was an interesting piece a few weeks back on vg.hu about how the regulations forcing developers to build parking...

damone There was an interesting piece a few weeks back on vg.hu about how the regulations forcing developers to build parking garage spaces may be negatively impacting the local residential property market. The piece features one Danny Bercovich, managing director of District XIII's Narancs Liget project, as saying that the prices of new flats in Budapest could be millions of forints lower if developers were able to allow market forces to determine how many garage slots they build, rather than being obliged to do so. Bercovich went on to say that in several recently-built lakóparkok, nearly 90% of apartments were bought, while 40% of garages remain unsold. Being someone who is naturally predisposed to letting the market govern decisions like this, I was initially sympathetic to Bercovich's argument. But after a bit of thought (and a few unreturned calls to him for further comment) I am not so sure.]]> we had a similar story, in which some executives put the "extra cost" of such spaces at up to 25% of the cost of an inexpensive flat, and talked of a major glut of unused spaces across the city. But what's weird is that these same stories often then go on to complain about how expensive such spaces are when it comes to sell or rent them. The most recent piece puts the price of a downtown garage space at Ft 3-4 million (€11,300-€15,000). From my own experience trying to rent such a slot in the inner part of District VI, they don't come dirt cheap, probably costing between Ft 15,000-Ft 20,000 a month, or around 25% of the rent on the sort of flat these spaces come "attached" to. This should not be surprising: In my neighborhood, even if you have permission from the district to park on the street, you can drive around in circles for quite a while before you find a place to actually do it. And that's without even considering that the district should (and probably will) at some point limit parking to one side of some narrow streets, such as Zichy Jenő utca. Of course, one could argue that, by mandating the creation of new parking spaces, the authorities are encouraging people to use cars rather than public transport to get around. But the fact is that Hungarians - and especially the folks who tend to favor newly-built flats - want cars. And this is likely to be more the case the farther from the center you go. In a land of bad regulations, mandating that each new flat have a parking space seems one of the least bad such regulations. The bottom line here is that what is really required is a more transparent and efficient market in allocating these spaces. The technology is certainly there (my garage has one of those radio-control things that sits on my dashboard, meaning all I have to do is drive in and drive out.) What is now needed is for flat owners and developers to stop their whining and just sell or rent the damn things for whatever the market will bear, foregoing the traditional impulse to sit and wait for a "sucker" to come along and overpay. On the other hand, if auto ownership continues to grow - and the number of "free" parking places on the street drops - over time these slots may become more valuable than the flats they are supposedly such a drag on.]]> tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18757 2010-03-17T08:53:44Z 2010-03-17T09:11:46Z

Market concerns about Hungary's fiscal performance seem exaggerated, creating room for the NBH to cut the base rate further, a...

Market concerns about Hungary's fiscal performance seem exaggerated, creating room for the NBH to cut the base rate further, a major City-based investment group said. In its latest Global Economic Weekly research note, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch introduced its new Monetary Conditions Indices (MCIs) for six major emerging markets including Hungary. It shows that monetary conditions remain relatively tight in the CE-3 group as inflation in these countries remains much more subdued than in other emerging regions. Against this background, the NBH is set to cut by another 125bp this year, also considering that market concerns about a fiscal slippage "are likely substantially overdone", Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said. In a chart attached to the report, it forecasts NBH's policy rate to end the year at 4.50pc. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18756 2010-03-17T08:52:59Z 2010-03-17T09:10:25Z

Hungary's industrial output rose an unadjusted 3.4pc and a workday-adjusted 5.7pc in the twelve months to January, the Central Statistics...

Hungary's industrial output rose an unadjusted 3.4pc and a workday-adjusted 5.7pc in the twelve months to January, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said in a second reading on Wednesday. The figures were unchanged from the first reading published on March 9. In December, twelve-month industrial output rose an unadjusted 1pc, but fell an adjusted 1.2pc. Export sales climbed an unadjusted 13.4pc and an adjusted 16.3pc. Domestic sales fell an unadjusted 12.6pc and an adjusted 10.6pc. The unadjusted drop in domestic sales accelerated from a 9.9pc decline in December, but the adjusted fall slowed from 11.3pc in the previous month. In a month-on-month comparison, output rose a seasonally- and workday-adjusted 8.8pc as exports climbed 7.4pc and domestic sales increased 2.6pc. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18755 2010-03-17T08:52:13Z 2010-03-17T09:09:04Z

Ajka Kristaly has won a contract to make glasses and bottles for Rolls-Royce luxury cars, the business daily Napi Gazdasag...

Ajka Kristaly has won a contract to make glasses and bottles for Rolls-Royce luxury cars, the business daily Napi Gazdasag said on Tuesday, quoting Ajka Kristaly CEO Zoltan Katzer. Ajka Kristaly, a member of the Fotex group, has so far received orders to supply such products for 700 vehicles. Ajka Kristaly's orders declined around 60pc following the onset of the economic crisis, with debts reaching HUF 1.8bn (EUR 6.81m). Therefore, the company was compelled to apply for bankruptcy protection one year ago, the paper noted. However, since several of Ajka Kristaly's competitors went bankrupt, the company's market position changed during the second half of last year. The company had net sales of HUF 1.5bn in 2009, down from HUF 1.8bn in 2008. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18754 2010-03-17T08:50:54Z 2010-03-17T09:06:50Z

Assets in Hungarian investments funds rose 2pc to HUF 3,161bn in at the end of February from a month earlier,...

Assets in Hungarian investments funds rose 2pc to HUF 3,161bn in at the end of February from a month earlier, the Association of Hungarian Investment Fund and Asset Management Companies (BAMOSZ) told MTI on Monday. Investment funds drew HUF 53bn in fresh capital and had HUF 8.9bn in yields in January. Open-ended securities funds, which account for nearly two-thirds of all investment fund assets, attracted HUF 28.1bn in fresh capital and had yields of almost HUF 6bn. Assets of guaranteed funds rose 2.6pc to HUF 408bn with the sale of HUF 9.5bn of new units and a yield of about HUF 1bn. Property funds grew 3.7pc to HUF 309bn. The funds drew HUF 9.8bn in fresh capital and had yields of HUF 1.6bn. Assets of money market funds increased 2.7pc to HUF 1,240bn, as investors bought HUF 28bn more units and yields came to HUF 4.8bn. Bond funds grew 2.4pc to HUF 279bn, drawing HUF 3.8bn in fresh capital and generating yields of HUF 2.8bn. Investors took HUF 3.1bn out of share funds and the funds had a negative yield of HUF 2.2bn, causing total stock to fall a little more than 1pc to HUF 343bn. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18753 2010-03-17T08:50:12Z 2010-03-17T09:04:22Z

Hungary's tax centralisation must be reduced by ten percentage points from the current 39pc of GDP over the coming four...

Hungary's tax centralisation must be reduced by ten percentage points from the current 39pc of GDP over the coming four years, former finance minister and central bank governor Zsigmond Jarai said at the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum on Tuesday. The tax system must be made simpler and more transparent, Mr Jarai said. These tax goals are for the mid-term, because the budget deficit has to be dealt with in the short term, he added. The 3.8pc-of-GDP accrual-based deficit target for 2010 cannot be met, and if nothing changes, it could reach 7-8pc by year-end, Mr Jarai said. Mr Jarai said that, in his opinion, the IMF and the European Commission would accept a general government deficit that reached 5.0pc of GDP as long as the long-term consolidation of state companies was carried out at the same time. Speaking about the adoption of the euro, Mr Jarai reiterated his opinion aired a week earlier at a meeting of industrialists association MGYOSZ. Although it would be advantageous for Hungary to join the eurozone as soon as possible, a weak economy cannot adopt a strong currency, he said. "First, the economy has to be put in order, and afterward one can dream about introducing the euro," he said. Mr Jarai was loath to give a target date for adopting the single currency, but still named 2015 or 2016 as possible years. Mr Jarai said earlier that he would take a position in a Fidesz-led government, if asked. Fidesz is tipped to win general elections in April. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18752 2010-03-17T08:49:22Z 2010-03-17T09:03:05Z

Hungary's Customs and Finance Guard (VP) on Tuesday said it had uncovered a ring suspected of laundering billions of forints....

Hungary's Customs and Finance Guard (VP) on Tuesday said it had uncovered a ring suspected of laundering billions of forints. The ring is suspected of laundering about HUF 10bn and defrauding tax authorities of HUF 3bn, said deputy chief of VP's criminal command Zsolt Frohlich. The operation was uncovered in a raid of more than 30 locations with the participation of 260 VP officials as well as local police, he added. The size of the raid was justified considering many of the suspects were carrying weapons and there was also the danger of evidence being destroyed, Mr Frohlich said. About HUF 6.5bn of the money laundered and HUF 2bn of the tax fraud was uncovered at a company that gets much of its revenue from state orders, he said without naming the company. MTI learnt the company was Eclipse Informatikai Rendszerhaz, which won an unannounced negotiated public purchase procedure to make changes to Hungary's central vehicle authentication system and operate the system for four years for net HUF 4.95bn at the end of 2009. The authorities seized a large number of documents and other data in the raids. They also seized some HUF 30m in cash and nine cars, among them a Porsche and a Ferrari. tag:www.realdeal.hu,2010://16.18751 2010-03-17T08:48:38Z 2010-03-17T09:01:41Z

The Budapest Stock Exchange's blue-chip BUX index closed Tuesday trade up 3.13pc to 23,936.99. The BUX gained 726.80 points to...

The Budapest Stock Exchange's blue-chip BUX index closed Tuesday trade up 3.13pc to 23,936.99. The BUX gained 726.80 points to its highest close since February 14, 2008 on a heavy composite exchange turnover of HUF 46.52bn (EUR 176.21m), as the 16 eurozone countries pledged on Tuesday to if necessary provide financially strapped Greece with loans, thus providing blue-chip indices at bourses throughout Europe with a lift. The BUX fluctuated in a 3.29pc range between an intra-session low of 23,174.54 just after morning bell and an intra-session high at the index's closing mark of 23,936.99. The mid-cap BUMIX index also gained on Tuesday, advancing 20.36 points, or 0.98pc, to 2,089.58. BSE blue-chips stood as follows at Tuesday's closing bell: OTP Bank gained 5.53pc to its highest close since September 22, 2008 at HUF 6,700on an immense, exchange-high turnover of HUF 36.74bn; Magyar Telekom advanced 3.45pc to HUF 750 on a turnover of HUF 2.46bn; Oil and natural gas company MOL gained 2.72pc to its highest close since July 31, 2008 at HUF 20,390 on a turnover of HUF 4.73bn; Drug company Richter advanced 0.68pc to HUF 42,690 on a turnover of HUF 1.64bn. The BSE Big Four generated 97.96pc of the exchange's composite Tuesday turnover. Tamas Szatmari of Raiffeisen Bank commented that the BUX outperformed its global blue-chip peers on Tuesday, noting that Hungary's April national elections have apparently not undermined the optimism of investors with regard to BSE shares. Mr Szatmari added that Standard and Poor's confirmation of Greece's ratings boosted the outlook at European bourses on Tuesday. Szabolcs Vaszko of Erste characterized the optimism that currently prevails on global stock markets as groundless. Mr Vaszko predicted that the value of shares traded at stock exchanges in Europe would continue to rise as long as the outlook remains positive on Wall Street. Other major central and eastern European blue-chip stock indices also closed higher on Tuesday, with Prague's PX-50 gaining 1.28pc to 1,201.90 and Warsaw's WIG-20 advancing 2.20pc to 2,445.34.