The minister said Hungary's level of development has improved from 66.1% of the EU average to 77.7% since 2010, ahead of Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia, among others.

Varga emphasized that, despite the war raging next door, and even without recovery funds, the Hungarian economy grew by 4.6% last year, significantly exceeding the European Union average of 3.5%.

According to the minister, the growth could be 1.5% this year, and next year it will return to the 4% rate before the pandemic.