Hungary's Orban says ready for talks with IMF
2012-01-09 12:23:39
Hungary is ready to start unconditional talks with the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday in comments to the MTI news agency.
"For our part, there are no preconditions for starting talks with the IMF," the conservative leader said in an interview with MTI.
"Any questions that the sides judge important can be put on the agenda," he added.
Hungary is in desperate need of international credit, and Orban was speaking after a week in which he has seen market pressure on his country ramp up against a background of friction not just with the IMF but the European Union.
On Friday, Fitch ratings agency joined Moody's and Standard & Poor's in downgrading the EU member's debt to "junk" status.
The previous day, Hungary's forint had already dropped to its lowest ever level against the euro, at 323 forints to the euro.
Orban said that Tamas Fellegi, Hungary's negotiator with the EU and IMF, would be authorised to sign a deal that would allow Hungary to carry out an economic programme developed in consultation with the IMF.
Fellegi is due to meet for talks with IMF chief Christine Lagarde in Washington on Wednesday.
Hungary would keep its deficit below 3.0 percent of GDP in 2013, said Orban.
The parliament, which is dominated by his Fidesz Party, would not pass any economic laws while the talks with the IMF were ongoing, he added.
Talks with the EU and IMF over a credit line up to 20 billion euros ($25 billion) stalled over Orban's plans to reform Hungary's central bank.
Hungary's central bank chief Andras Simor, with whom Orban has notoriously poor relations, said in December that the government's proposed changes represented a "total takeover" that threatened to end the lender's independence.
The EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank have expressed similar reservations: the first two made their feelings clear in December, cutting short a visit of their experts who were in Hungary to discuss the aid deal.
European commissioners are due to look at the issue again on Wednesday.
Hungary only avoided bankruptcy in 2008 thanks to 20 billion euros of credit from the EU, the IMF and the World Bank.
But Orban has so far refused to back down on the new central bank law, and other laws, part of a new constitution, have rung alarm bells both inside the country and beyond.
Critics say they increase government control over the judiciary, alter the electoral system in Fidesz's favour and curb media freedom.
Tens of thousands of people protested the changes in Budapest on January 2.