Hungary will not have to make any more FX bond issues until early in 2023, Finance Minister Mihály Varga has said in a newspaper interview.
“With the 2.5 billion euro FX bond issue in November, we’ve achieved a position that doesn’t require us to tap FX resources until early 2023,” Varga told Wednesday’s issue of business daily Világgazdaság, adding that it was worth waiting to see how economic developments turn out before making a decision. Regarding EU funding, he said the finance ministry was preparing for “various scenarios”. Varga said the dispute over the 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund may get to the point that, with the exception of farm support, EU member states “cannot count on any funding next year”.
Varga noted that Hungary this year repaid 1.5 billion US dollars of FX debt maturing in 2021 without having to draw on external resources. “We don’t plan further FX bond issues, and we haven’t given up the goal either of reducing the share of FX debt within state debt from 53% to under 20%,” he said. He noted that financing state debt with retail securities such as the popular Plus bond was costlier than FX financing, adding that “the huge advantage” was that “it stabilises the domestic holdings of state debt, as Hungarian bond buyers know the environment, and Hungarian households can also share in the yields and income from the financing of that debt.”
hungarymatters.hu
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