Hungary

Hungary's headline inflation in March rose by 1.8% from a year ago, but was below expectations. Government measures to curb fuel price increases due to the Iran war appear to have had their desired effect. The market had predicted a 2.2% rise. Analysts had predicted an average annual core inflation rate of 2.3%. Poland and the Czech Republic both had similar results, where price increases accelerated but were below analyst expectations. The soaring energy prices caused by the?Iran war are a major concern for central bankers in the region, and have led to a halt in monetary easing measures being...

JD Vance, the U.S. vice president, slammed the European Union on Tuesday for its "disgraceful interference" in an election held in?Hungary. He also praised Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his role as an ally to Donald?Trump when it comes to the defence of Western civilization. Here are some key quotes from the joint press conference in Budapest. VANCE ON HUNGARIAN ELSECTION "What happened in this country and what happened during this election campaign is one of worst examples of foreign interference in elections that I have ever read or seen ..." "The bureaucrats at Brussels have tried to destroy Hungary's...

The 'Iran War' sent fuel prices soaring in March, but the headline figure was still below?predictions and the 2% central bank target. According to preliminary data released by the statistics office on Tuesday, the?headline?figure increased 1.9% from a previous year in March, which is faster than February's 1.4%. According to a poll, analysts had predicted 2.0%. The data revealed that consumer prices increased 0.6% month-over-month, with a rise of 5.3% in energy prices, including motor fuels. After?the government took steps to reduce energy bills, the global oil price shock came at a time of low inflation in the Czech Republic....

According to the preliminary results from 'the state election commission', based on?the most votes?counted?, the right-leaning Slovenian Democratic Party and liberal Freedom Movement were tied at Sunday's parliamentary elections in Slovenia. Even with their existing coalition partners, neither party appeared likely to win the 46 seats required for a majority of the 90-seat Parliament. This makes smaller parties who cross the 4% threshold potentially kingmakers. SDS won 28 seats. Based on 99.45% counted votes, GS was in a close race with SDS. With the support of the other parties, GS, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Robert Golob, would have...

Oil prices spiked due to the war in Iran, and for now this has halted any monetary easing efforts by emerging market central bankers from Poland to Turkey. This is because policymakers are coping with an increase in inflation expectations as well as a rise in risk aversion. After a series of shocks, from the COVID outbreak to Russia's invasion in?Ukraine, that have shook markets, slowed growth, and fueled inflation, central banks are finally becoming more optimistic about global economic resilience?and easing price pressures. The dollar gained ground, and U.S. Treasury Yields rose as a proxy of borrowing costs in...

According to correspondence seen by, the management of a Russian owned oil refinery located in Germany privately warned Berlin that U.S. Sanctions were hurting their business and threatened fuel supplies for the capital and region. In a letter sent to Katherina Reiche in January, the management of Rosneft's PCK Schwedt refinery made an "urgent" appeal to her to resolve the standoff between the United States and the refinery. The letter details the escalating issues at the refinery which supplies fuel to Brandenburg, eastern Germany, and nine out of ten cars in Berlin. It also supplies key chemicals and ingredients for...

Italy announced on Monday that Venezuela had released Italian citizens Alberto Trentini?and Mario Burlo?from prison. It also pledged to "upgrade its relations with Caracas" in response. After Venezuela released two Italian citizens, Biagio Piieri, a journalist, and Luigi Gasperin a businessman, last week, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that no other citizens with only Italian nationality were still in prison. Hundreds of dual nationals, both Italian and Venezuelans, are still being held. Venezuelan leadership announced on January 8, that it would release a large number of prisoners including foreigners, as a gesture. After the U.S. captured Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro,...

Three sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that MOL, a Hungarian oil company, has informed U.S. officials of its interest in purchasing international assets from sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil. This adds to a growing number of potential buyers. In October, the United States imposed sanctions against Russia's largest private oil producer as part of its efforts to press Moscow to end their war in Ukraine. This forced Lukoil into announcing the sale of foreign assets. Sources have confirmed that Lukoil has been in talks with oil majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Middle Eastern investors before the December...

Orban's chief said that the Hungarian prime minister will meet Donald Trump in Washington on November 7, where he hopes to discuss a way forward for a U.S. -Russia summit and to seek an exemption from U.S. sanctions on energy. Gergely Gulyas said at a press conference that the two leaders will also sign agreements of co-operation on the fields energy, defence, economy, and finance. He said that "some of these have been already negotiated while in other cases, discussions are still underway." Orban said previously that he wanted to sign a wide-ranging economic agreement with Washington in order to...

The only refinery in Serbia will only continue to operate until November 25, as new crude oil deliveries have been stopped due to U.S. sanction against the Russian-owned plant operator NIS. This was reported by Tanjug News Agency on Wednesday, citing the energy minister. NIS, of which Gazprom, Gazprom and the Serbian Government each own 44.9%, operates the only refinery in Serbia, located in Pancevo. The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury placed initial sanctions on Russia's petroleum sector on 10 January and gave Gazprom a 45-day deadline to sell its NIS holdings. The sanctions had been...

Peter Magyar, the leader of Hungary's opposition party, has asked Russia to refrain from interfering in its politics. He said that there was no way for meaningful co-operation without respecting his country's sovereignty. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service published a statement earlier this week in which it described Magyars as loyal to the "globalist elites", and claimed that the European Commission is considering "regime changes in Budapest." Magyar's Tisza Party, which is ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz at the polls in the majority of polls before the parliamentary elections next spring, has published an open-letter to Russia's ambassador...

Windfall taxes imposed by Hungary to assist plug the government's budget deficit are requiring business to pay more for nothing, the president of energy group MOL said on Sunday. MOL is Hungary's most significant business profits earner and CEO Zsolt Hernadi's remarks come two weeks after Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government extended windfall taxes on some sectors to increase public revenue. Hungary has had a hard time to contain its budget deficit because the COVID-19 pandemic, with the shortage averaging nearly 7% of economic output over the previous 4 years, well above European Union typical levels. This month, Orban's federal...

Sources say that the UAE-based International Holding Company, Chevron, and Carlyle are all competing to buy up the global assets of Russia’s Lukoil as a U.S. deadline for selling them expires next week. Sources say that the United States sanctioned Lukoil in October, and Rosneft its counterpart to force the Kremlin into a peace agreement with Ukraine. They have given Lukoil a deadline of January 17 to sell its $22 billion global portfolio. These assets include refineries, petrol stations and oil fields in Europe and the United States as well as oil fields and refineries in Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan....

Hungary has signed a framework deal with Azerbaijan to purchase up to 800,000,000 cubic meters of gas over a period of two years. Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's foreign minister, announced this at a press conference on Thursday. Hungary has signed a framework agreement with Azerbaijan for the purchase of up to 800 million cubic meters of natural gas over a two-year period, Peter Szijjarto, the Foreign Minister in Hungary told?a briefing on Thursday. This is a framework contract that allows up to?800 million cubic metres in deliveries to be realized. How much of the agreement will be completed in the next...

The Druzhba pipeline will stay Hungary's primary route for crude oil imports, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Minsk on the sidelines of a conference. The pipeline transfers Russian crude through Belarus and Ukraine to Hungary and also Slovakia. Supplies resumed last month to Hungary's energy business MOL 's refineries after a halt to deliveries following Kyiv's addition of Russian company Lukoil to a sanctions list in June. In contrast to many other European Union nations, Hungary seeks to preserve close political and organization ties to Russia, consisting of dependence...

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Friday: ** Anglo American declined rival miner BHP Group's 31.1 billion pound ($ 39 billion) takeover proposal, saying the bid substantially underestimated the London-listed company and its future potential customers. ** U.S. Silica Holdings said it has actually signed a. deal to be gotten by funds managed by affiliates of investment. company Apollo in a $1.85 billion offer, sending out shares of. the frac sand miner up 19.1% in premarket trading. ** Thyssenkrupp will sell a 20% stake in its steel. company to the energy holding managed...

Hungary's government will think about whether to implement lower fuel rates after an evaluation by the Central Statistics Workplace (KSH) of regional typical rate levels, Economy Minister Marton Nagy informed company daily Vilaggazdasag. Nagy recently put pressure on fuel suppliers to cut gas station costs closer to the main European average as part of broader government price-setting intervention after the worst inflationary surge in the European Union. The government's patience is going out ... We believe that regional fuel costs are 7% to 9% higher than the local average, Nagy stated in the interview. The minister called the representatives of...

Hungary's economy minister put pressure on fuel providers on Thursday to cut rates better to the main European average as part of broader federal government interventions into pricesetting following the worst inflationary surge in the European Union. Marton Nagy called the agents of Hungary's Petrol Association and oil and gas group MOL to a meeting pointing out an earlier arrangement between the federal government and the industry, after fuel costs in Hungary increased to 642 forints ($ 1.77) per liter today, above the local average. On this basis, he has plainly cautioned the industry that they are not appreciating their...