Hungary has asked the International Monetary Fund and the European Union for financial assistance, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said in a statement on Monday.

“The IMF has received a request from the Hungarian authorities for possible financial assistance,” Ms Lagarde said in a statement.

“The authorities have sent a similar request to the European Commission and indicated that they plan to treat as precautionary any IMF and EC support that could be made available,” the statement added.

“The IMF team currently in Budapest will now return to Washington for consultations with the IMF’s management and the Executive Board. Discussions on the 2011 Article IV will be concluded at a later stage,” Ms Lagarde said.

Hungary’s government announced on Thursday it was starting negotiations on a new type of cooperation with the IMF.

Hungary does not want a credit line it can call down, rather it wants a so-called precautionary agreement that it can use in the case of the greatest risk, if the crisis in the euro zone worsens further, National Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said at the weekend