The national economy ministry on Friday rejected reports branding Hungary the poorest country in the European Union, calling the reports “nonsense” and “willful lies”, a misinterpretation of an Eurostat report stating Hungarian household consumption as 70 percent of the EU average.
The ministry said in a statement that the matter of spending or saving was a sovereign decision of households. Therefore consumption data “has limited applicability” and “drawing conclusions regarding poverty from that [data] is a malicious distortion of facts.”
The ministry said that contrary to reports, Hungarian families had “naturally” grown more cautious as a result of the war in Ukraine. That led to the gross savings rate of families growing further, to over 21 percent, the highest in the EU, the ministry said. Compared with early 2022, the gross financial wealth of families had grown by 22,500 billion forints (EUR 56.7bn) to over 102,000 billion, the statement said.
The net wealth of Hungarian families is over 106 percent of GDP, which puts the country in the European mid-field and ahead of Slovakia, Romania and Poland, the statement said.
Gross average wage high?
Hungarian household income from interest was 4 percent of GDP in 2023, the highest in the EU, thanks to a high ratio of government bonds owned by households and to a steady growth of wages and the employment rate, the statement said.
It added that household income had also grown, with the gross average wage close to 660,000 forints, three times higher than before Fidesz came to power in 2010. “The minimum wages have grown 3.6 times since 2010, one of the steepest in the EU,” the statement said. “Real wage growth has been also constant, stalling only for a short while because of the war, as the government broke down inflation,” it said. We wrote about the Hungarian median wage in THIS article.
The ministry said growing wages and employment rate had contributed to a significant fall in poverty. Calculated with EU methods, the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Hungary has fallen by 1.2-1.3 million since 2010, well below the EU average, the ministry said.
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The Fidesz government is desperate. They have screwed Hungarians and the Hungarian economy big time and they know it. They have stolen everything they can get their hands on and forced companies to go into the corrupt hands of their friends. Hungary has now been found to be both the most corrupt country in the EU and the poorest. All Fidesz can do is call these findings lies and hope Hungarians are stupid and lethargic enough to continue to believe them. Corruption and poverty go hand in hand. That is what has held most of Africa back and Hungary suffers from this disease that Russia has helped foster in Hungary to its’ benefit. Democratic countries will not ally themselves with Russia but corrupt dictatorships will. The Russians use corruption to ensnare countries into their control.
These “statistics” and, especially, their interpretation are as credible and as reliable as Fitch’s and Moody’s “credit ratings.” They show a very partial picture at best but, just as often if not more, they’re used for political purposes. You can bet your bottom forint that if Hungary had a (com)pliant globalist-socialist government, this “report” and its “conclusions” would’ve been very different.
Truth always hurts.
I agree Michael. If Hungary had a different government, the conclusions would be very different. Much better, thanks to no mafia theft of the current government. I knew we could agree on something MS.
But I understand, it is in the interest of Fidesz to keep wages low in Hungary. They want a similar situation to China and other Asian countries where only the elite are wealthy and the poor are uneducated and a cheap source of labor. The educated move on to other countries out of necessity.
Orban – has FEED into the – great divide, the widening gap of the rich getting richer in Hungary and the poor becoming poorer.
Tyrant of a Prime Minister continues to wreck Hungary.
The minister forgot to mention that the decision for households to save money and not spend is the sky-high inflation Orban and his minions unleashed upon the country. They are trying to manipulate the media so as to control the story.
This is for the rusophobic Larry who is full of hate and anger. Democratic countries are joining Russia and did before. Did you hear about BRICS ? Have a look how many democractic countries supported Russia in the luaghable Swiss summit for “peace”
The figures don’t lie. Very little is open to intepretation, Hungarians spent less as a proportion of the income when adjusted for local purchasing power than anywhere else in Europe. Neighbouring countries are subject to the same challenges regarding the war, energy shocks and food inflation.
The excuses are painful to listen to. The first step on any path to improvement is recognising the problem to begin with.
The statistics are wrong, the numbers are bad, Hungary should be higher in the rankings, it is Soros!
We are ahead on a couple of fronts, though.
FACT – one of the highest inflation figures in the EU:
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate%20-?continent=europe
FACT – highest long term interest in the EU (which does not stop our Politicians, borrowing heavily):
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/financial_markets_and_interest_rates/long_term_interest_rates/html/index.en.html