Fidesz parliamentary leader says all compromises with IMF must serve Hungary’s interests

Janos Lazar, parliamentary leader of the ruling Fidesz party, told MTI in an interview published on Thursday that Hungary must accept certain conditions during upcoming talks regarding a financial-support package with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, but that such conditions must not be contrary to the country’s interests.

Mr Lazar told MTI that "Only such compromises and agreements can be considered that serve the country’s own interests, so the kind of servile behavior that characterized the former government is not warranted, because this country’s revenue and expenditures largely cover one another."

Mr Lazar stated that Hungary will have to accept certain conditions during negotiations with the IMF and EU and must "add our own modification measures," citing transformation to the public-transport system as an area that requires attention.

"In a global world there must be global guarantees and there is a need for the guarantee of the IMF and the EU," Mr Lazar added.

Mr Lazar said with regard to changes that international organizations have requested to recently adopted laws, "there will be some things in which agreement comes about and some things in which it does not." The Fidesz parliamentary leader noted that although parliament decided not to satisfy requests from these organizations to delay ratification of Hungary’s new Central Bank Law and introduction of the possibility of merging the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) with the financial-market regulator PSZAF, it had built the European Central Bank’s observations into the former law and pledged not to implement the possible merger of the central bank and the financial-market regulator during the mandate of current NBH Governor Andras Simor due to expire in 2013.

Mr Lazar said that the leadership of the NBH and the government’s economic-policy makers think differently about the world and that it would be the duty of the NBH to utilize monetary means to support the government’s economic policy aimed at generating growth. Mr Lazar added achieving such growth is impossible without the support of the NBH.

Mr Lazar asserted that the NBH leadership should be more flexible, adding that "the central bank is not Andras Simor’s bank, but the country’s bank and it must act in the interest of the responsibility which it bears toward the country."

Mr Lazar remarked that it is an issue to be considered whether the government will appoint a new deputy governor to serve at the central bank during NBH Governor Andras Simor’s current mandate.

Mr Lazar characterized a Tuesday report that the government would use part of the National Bank of Hungary’s foreign currency reserves to spur economic growth to be "foolishness."