Orbán gambles away markets' confidence

Hungary's right-wing nationalist government rejects the austerity measures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has demanded it introduce. Budapest is obviously prepared to accept the devaluation of the forint that came after its talks with the Fund were broken off, the conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung observes: "The IMF has already warned how dangerous a collapse of the forint would be for Hungary's public debt. The Orbán government doesn't seem to have grasped this. When its representatives announced at the beginning of June that they had proof of budget deficits to match those in Greece in the hope of gaining ground in domestic politics, the forint lost almost five percent of its value compared to the euro within two days. Later they backtracked, but with a minus of 6.5 percent within three months the forint had performed worse than any other currency up to Friday. If it doesn't reach an agreement with the EU and the IMF Hungary will hardly be able to regain the confidence of the markets. Particularly with a government that allows itself this kind of caper any investors will wish the country had an international security net."

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