Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Hungarian Central Bank Gyorgy Matolcsy: IMF office in Budapest not necessary any longer. A long-running dispute between Hungary and the International Monetary Fund escalated on Monday when the head of the country's central bank called on the IMF to close its office in Budapest, saying it was no longer needed. Relations between the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the International Monetary Fund have never been especially good. Now they have hit rock bottom. Orbán's former economy minister and current central bank governor, Gyorgy Matolcsy, wrote a letter to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday calling on the fund to close its representative office in Budapest as it was "not necessary to maintain" it any longer. Hungary owes its economic survival to the IMF. When the country was caught up in the global financial crisis in 2008, the fund and the EU came to the rescue with a €20 billion ($26 billion) loan. At the time, Orbán's predecessor was in office. Ever since Orbán became prime minister in 2010, Hungary has had trouble with international institutions. His government pushed through a new constitution and many laws that curtailed democracy, the powers of the constitutional court, the justice system and press freedoms. The EU responded by launching several proceedings against Hungary for breaching EU treaties. In early July, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Hungary to repeal the "anti-democratic changes." Orbán angrily dismissed the demands as "Soviet-style" meddling. Under Orbán, all negotiations with the IMF about fresh aid have failed. On Monday, central bank chief Matolcsy said the country didn't need the IMF's money and that Hungary would repay the 2008 loan in full by the end of this year. He said the government had succeeded in pushing its budget deficit below the EU ceiling of 3 percent of GDP and had reduced government debt. Matolcsy is the architect of Orbán's unorthodox economic policy which is based on imposing heavy special taxes on large companies. He became central bank governor four months ago. The Hungarian economy shrank by 1.7 percent last year. The EU Commission expects it to return to weak growth in 2013. The budget deficit is expected to rise again, back up to 3 percent of GDP.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Goldman Sachs doubled its profits in the second quarter as the bank benefited from gains in fixed income, currency and commodity trading revenue.

The Wall Street giant set out its latest quarterly earnings Tuesday morning announcing net income of $1.93bn, compared with $962m a year earlier. Net revenue, including net interest income, rose 30% to $8.61bn from $6.6bn last year.

The bank said it had set aside $3.7bn for compensation and benefits – including bonuses – in the second quarter, 27% higher than the second quarter of 2012. Goldman said the increase reflected "a significant increase in net revenues".

"The firm's performance was solid especially in the context of mixed economic sentiment during the quarter," said Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer. "Improving economic conditions in the US drove client activity and the strength of our global client franchise allowed us to deliver positive performance across a number of our businesses. While the operating environment has shown noticeable signs of improvement, we continue to put a premium on disciplined risk management, particularly in regard to the firm's strong capital and liquidity levels."

Revenue from fixed income, currency and commodity trading totaled $2.46bn in the second quarter, versus $2.19bn a year earlier. Total equities revenue was $1.85bn, compared with $1.7bn a year earlier and $1.92bn in the first quarter.

Goldman Sachs ranked first worldwide in investment banking in the quarter. Net revenues in investment banking were $1.55bn, 29% higher than the second quarter of 2012 and essentially unchanged compared with the first quarter of 2013. Net revenues in financial advisory were $486m, slightly higher than the second quarter of 2012. Net revenues in the firm's underwriting business were $1.07bn, 45% higher than the second quarter of 2012.

Anonymous said...

Bernanke Says Fed Bond Purchases Not on 'Preset Course'

Bloomberg





“This testimony is the relatively dovish Bernanke,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's “In the Loop” with Betty Liu.

Anonymous said...

Oh here we go again - blame the baby boomers for everything!
It was the baby boomer generation who have paid their taxes and their National Insurance contributions, it's the total cretins of politicians who allowed every Tom, Dick and Harriet from anywhere in the world take advantage of the benefits system, the NHS with health tourism, free education, free or subsidized housing etc without paying a penny towards it!
It's also the idiots of politicians who have changed the priority of the NHS from curing medical conditions to providing for lifestyle choices like sex change operations, tattoo removal and even abortion, which is now widely used as a form of contraception, even though traditional forms of contraception are free and the original concept of abortion was only to be used if the mother or baby's life was at risk.
Finally the vast majority of baby boomers lived within 'their means' unlike the vast majority of youngsters today who have to have the 'latest everything' even when they know damn well they can't possibly afford it, but they believe that it is some sort of 'human right'!

Anonymous said...

Oh here we go again - blame the baby boomers for everything!
It was the baby boomer generation who have paid their taxes and their National Insurance contributions, it's the total cretins of politicians who allowed every Tom, Dick and Harriet from anywhere in the world take advantage of the benefits system, the NHS with health tourism, free education, free or subsidized housing etc without paying a penny towards it!
It's also the idiots of politicians who have changed the priority of the NHS from curing medical conditions to providing for lifestyle choices like sex change operations, tattoo removal and even abortion, which is now widely used as a form of contraception, even though traditional forms of contraception are free and the original concept of abortion was only to be used if the mother or baby's life was at risk.
Finally the vast majority of baby boomers lived within 'their means' unlike the vast majority of youngsters today who have to have the 'latest everything' even when they know damn well they can't possibly afford it, but they believe that it is some sort of 'human right'!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to tell the 'boomers' the bad news, but within a few years all pensions will be nationalised and the money thrown into the black hole of debt repayments and Ponzi welfarism.

A perfectly reasonable way of reduce elder care costs would be for HMG to buy up 1000s of empty appartments in Spain for a few Euros, then ship over old folks who are currently in council houses

Immediate saving in costs from winter fuel payments etc. and the NHS dealing with flu and falls on ice. The now empty council houses can be re-let to folks currently paid to stay with private landlords and in B&Bs.

I believe Germany is already well down the route of exporting to southern Europe

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Commenter's avatar wilfulsprite
Today 08:37 AM

Germany is also exporting the German elderly to Eastern Europe.
I wonder who will care for and fund for all these elderly people when all the young people have left those busted countries to move here and to Germany?