The redesign is aimed at making the Hungarian currency more up-to-date and harder to counterfeit, the central bank said. The continuation of the program suggests the country has no plans to adopt the euro anytime soon, a fact supported by an interview MNB governor György Matolcsy gave last week, in which he said that the would be adopted in 2031 at the earliest.
The new banknotes become legal tender as of tomorrow, though they will not be in public circulation before March 1, 2017, according to the central bank. The existing design banknotes will not be accepted at shops after August 1, 2017, according to the statement. They will, however, keep their value and could be used at creditors and the Hungarian Post Office for three years. The central bank will exchanging them for new notes until July 31, 2037.
New plan to issue new forint notes was announced by the MNB in September 2014.
The opposition Socialist party was quick to criticize the government for the announced revamp, saying it had dropped plans to introduce the euro.
Following the revamp of the HUF 10,000 note, a new version of the HUF 20,000 banknote was brought into circulation by the MNB, which announced that the old notes would be accepted until December 2016.
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