Hungary ought to increase home possession in additional key sectors along with banking, media and vitality, a cupboard minister-designate mentioned on Wednesday, signaling extra strain on international corporations to reduce their presence within the nation.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, re-elected for a fourth successive time period final month, has led greater than a decade-long marketing campaign to carry Hungarian possession in banking, media and the vitality sectors above 50%, with businessmen near his ruling Fidesz celebration buying massive chunks of those strategic sectors.
“A sustainable (financial) convergence (with the European Union) is a key precedence, and that requires an autonomous and self-sustaining financial system,” Marton Nagy, a former central financial institution deputy governor and Orban’s choose for financial growth minister, instructed a parliamentary affirmation listening to.
Nagy, who seems to be sure to safe lawmakers’ approval, mentioned additional steps had been wanted to extend home possession within the constructing sector, the place native gamers had been “almost invisible,” in addition to within the meals retail and insurance coverage.
“The banking system represented step one, however we additionally must cope with insurers,” Nagy mentioned, with out elaborating.
Over the previous decade a number of international banks have offered their Hungarian companies to native gamers, however Nagy mentioned international corporations nonetheless dominated the insurance coverage sector.
Most not too long ago, Dutch insurer Aegon completed in March the sale of its Hungarian arm to Vienna Insurance coverage Group (VIG) for 620 million euros ($682 million), as a part of a broader divestment of regional companies introduced in 2020.
The Hungarian authorities initially blocked the deal, however subsequently accepted it whereas taking a forty five% stake within the native models of Aegon and VIG.
Nagy additionally mentioned Orban’s authorities aimed to maintain worth caps on gasoline, vitality, some fundamental meals and mortgages in place so long as inflation was unusually excessive to defend Hungarians from worth shocks.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; enhancing by Tomasz Janowski)
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