Hungary’s ruling Socialists rejected economists’ complaints over next year’s budget bill published in several dailies on Saturday.
A group of 29 economists, among them former central bank president and main opposition Fidesz’s finance minister Zsigmond Jarai, and other Fidesz-affiliated experts signed a letter, which vowed not to support the 2010 budget bill in parliament, on grounds that it “will plunge the country into danger”.
The economists cited “creative accounting”, a miscalculation of targets and a lack of overdue reforms as the most grievous faults of the 2010 budget bill.
In response, Socialist MP Istvan Tukacs said the economists were speaking of faults of which the current opposition was guilty when it was in government. He added that he trusted that the budget would be approved, as it was “the most important step in crisis management, the means to reducing the country’s budget deficit and laying foundations to the exit from the crisis in the upcoming years.”
The final vote on the budget will take place on Monday.
