{"id":620983,"date":"2026-09-11T02:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T02:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620983\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T02:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T02:38:20","slug":"nbh-governor-public-backing-for-hungarian-euro-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620983\/","title":{"rendered":"NBH Governor: public backing for Hungarian euro not enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s central bank governor has spoken of the pitfalls of euro adoption: this, he says, is how a Hungarian euro can be made to work.<\/p>\n

Only one criterion met<\/p>\n

The president of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank emphasised that the aim is not a swift, but a successful euro introduction. In his view, three things are needed for this: societal support, a coordinated strategy and a prepared real economy, index.hu writes.<\/p>\n

Public backing is already in place: among countries on the verge of adopting the euro, Hungary has the highest proportion of supporters, with roughly four in five Hungarians favouring the single currency. At the same time, an equally large share believe the country is not yet economically ready for it.<\/p>\n

The figures so far bear out this caution. According to Mih\u00e1ly Varga, Hungary currently meets just one accession criterion \u2013 the inflation reference value. This has, however, already improved the country\u2019s standing in financial markets, while over the past year and a half the forint has become one of the world\u2019s best-performing emerging-market currencies.<\/p>\n

Risk from energy dependence and sluggish growth<\/p>\n

Hungarian economic cycles move closely in step with those of the eurozone, which is a favourable sign. A more serious risk, however, is inflation: because of the greater energy dependence of central and eastern European countries, prices can more easily diverge from trends seen in the euro area.<\/p>\n

Never miss a headline: join Daily News Hungary\u2019s official WhatsApp channel<\/a>!<\/p>\n

There is also work to be done on catching up. Between 2020 and 2025, Hungary grew by an average of 1.2 per cent a year, while several neighbouring countries expanded more quickly.<\/p>\n

On the basis of Mr Varga\u2019s message, then, adopting the euro has again become a more realistic political goal, but actual accession is not yet close. Societal support is strong, certain economic indicators are improving, but significant economic-policy work is still required to meet the necessary convergence criteria.<\/p>\n

The European Commission has broken its silence: the Hungarian euro remains light-years away<\/a> \u2014 can P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s plan succeed?<\/p>\n

This is what the \u201cHungarian euro\u201d looks like<\/p>\n

As we reported last year, the first Hungarian euro coin is available for purchase on Vatera, and its price was not excessively high at the time. The obverse features King Matthias and Queen Beatrix, while the reverse shows the Phoenix, one of the largest sailing vessels on Lake Balaton, which sailed on the \u201cHungarian sea\u201d in the ownership of the Festetics family, founders of the Georgikon in Keszthely. Why these particular images appear on the front and back, and why this coin was produced in the first place, can be read in our article.<\/p>\n

\"Hungarian<\/a>Source: Vatera
\n\"Hungarian<\/a>Source: vatera<\/p>\n

New analysis: Hungary\u2019s government is full steam ahead with adopting the euro<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s central bank governor has spoken of the pitfalls of euro adoption: this, he says, is how a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-620983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}