Hungary’s private banking sector, where many of the country’s high-earners deposit their savings for safe keeping, saw its total assets under management rise to a record high of HUF 5.720 trillion (EUR 17.3 billion) at the end of last year, a very healthy 21.9% increase on the 2018 figure, according to the latest industry analysis by Blochamps Capital, a Budapest-based, private banking advisory firm. István Karagich, founding chief executive of Blochamps Capital, talked to the Budapest Business Journal about the sector and his hopes for the future.

The Hungarian banking sector is still subject to a sectoral tax. While local banks are doing much better today than at the beginning of the previous decade, right after the global financial crisis, some worry the burdens they bear might limit their competition against foreign-based FinTechs.

The Hungarian Parliament adopted several amendments to the Hungarian capital markets act, effective as of December 27, 2019, in order to adhere to the relevant rules of the European Union and also to make it easier for Hungarian companies to issue bonds by introducing more lenient information and publication rules for such issuances.

Although analysts had forecast a further weakening of the forint for 2020, the rate at which the Hungarian currency depreciated in the first two months of this year was much faster than expected. It hit a record low in February, exceeding HUF 340/EUR, which could be explained by a loose monetary policy and a weaker global economy. The coronavirus will surely only complicate things further.

While banks are closing branches internationally and the tech-savvy predict FinTechs could well dominate the financial competition, the reality shows that physical bank outlets are still preferred in Hungary, while the competition of big tech and traditional banks can also intertwine into a bilaterally beneficial cooperation.

István Nagy, the Minister of Agriculture, has backed the reopening of the local markets in Kaposvár.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has announced that a new shipment of medical supplies arrives today (Saturday, March 28), bringing another 27 tonnes of protective equipment from China. 

In this first article in a three-part series, Les Nemethy and Sergey Glekov use their regular Corporate Finance Column to look at the likely economic effects of the coronavirus.

In its latest series, “The Dawn of the New Decade”, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary looks into the most important events and trends shaping the global and regional economy and geopolitics at the beginning of 2020s. At the first event, on March 4, Iain Lindsay, British Ambassador to Hungary, gave an economic overview of possible trade agreements after Brexit.

Graphisoft boss Huw Roberts is on a double journey of discovery, plotting how he takes the architectural software company to greater heights and learning to navigate through life in a very different, very Hungarian world. And he appears to be thoroughly enjoying both.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary has made its fifth recommendation package to Hungary’s government. AmCham President Farkas Bársony and CEO Írisz Lippai-Nagy discuss the main findings with the Budapest Business Journal.

Healthcare workers will be able to travel for free in interurban public traffic, State Secretary Tamás Schanda of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology announced at the daily press conference of the coronavirus operative group today (March 28), state news service MTI reports.

The ninth PwC Hungarian CEO survey, the results of which were presented to an invited audience at the National Gallery on March 5, proved something of a contradictory beast, though local company heads are not so very different from their global counterparts in most cases.

Imre Nagy, the martyred Prime Minister of Hungary’s 1956 Uprising and four other revolutionary leaders – Miklós Gimes, Pál Maléter, József Szilágyi and Géza Losonczy – were re-buried on June 16, 1989, 31 years after they had been executed. The ceremony became a solemn demonstration of the Hungarian nation against the ruling Communist Party and it marked a crucial milestone on the way to the final collapse of the regime.

Fake news websites, nefarious chain mails, declining press freedom, polarized readers: Central Europe has experienced them all in the past decade. Just how bad the situation is, and how to improve media integrity, were the subjects of a conference arranged by the liberal Republikon Institute in Budapest on February 27.

The annual MIPIM commercial property expo on the Cote d’Azur in France, which last year attracted more than 25,000 attendees to the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, has been postponed to June 2-5, due to concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to Reed Midem, organizers of the event. It had originally been scheduled for March 10-13.

Rising construction costs and scarcity of labor are seen as a major barrier to development and therefore market growth across the various private and public property sectors. However, there are also signs are that the development cycles are at their peak, experts suggest.

The Hungarian economy once again surpassed initial expectations last year, expanding 4.9% on 2018, itself a 5.1% increase on 2017. But the warning signs were flashing before Christmas that such progress was unsustainable, and New Year forecasts for 2020 were in the 3-3.5% range. Then, news began circulating of a new, flu-like virus spreading from China.

Albania’s central bank said it decided to cut its key interest rate to a record low of 0.5% from 1%, aiming to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the countryʼs economic and financial health, regional portal SeeNews says.