Last week Friday, economist Ákos Péter Bod gave a lecture at the 1st Economic Kecsup-Evening in Hotel Három Gúnar, which attracted huge interest - we even had to bring in extra chairs for our guests. The former president of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank gave a lecture on our country's economy, and then invited the participants of the event to a discussion.
The presentation of Ákos Péter Bod was full of good mood despite the fact that, according to the expert, the country's economic situation does not give cause for unclouded cheerfulness. The evening began with a discussion of the importance of GDP - in which Hungary was officially overtaken by Romania - which, although important, the economist emphasized that the real wage, consumption, standard of living and health are much more relevant than this figure. He added that the Hungarian growth trend is below the regional average: from the European Union, only Croatia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece and Bulgaria are behind us. As far as the data is concerned, Hungary is only a speck of dust in the EU machine - we account for only 1.1 percent of the organization's GDP.
ÁKOS PÉTER BOD ALSO TALKED ABOUT HOW THE HUNGARIAN ECONOMY IS MORE INFLATIONARY THAN THE UNION AVERAGE, MORE ENERGY DEMANDING AND MORE DEPENDENT ON IMPORTS, THEREFORE THE HUGE INVESTMENT IN BATTERY FACTORIES, FOR EXAMPLE, IS incomprehensible TO HIM.
In addition to these, we are also weak in consumer consumption and in the credit ratings of state finances - the economist believes that they always play political games with the Hungarian budget, even though it is the country's money.
After the performance, he invited the audience to a discussion and question-and-answer session, where he tried to give everyone a concrete answer. Many people were curious about the future of the country, most of them were looking for hope, to which the former president of the MNB responded: "you can always hope". In his opinion, economic development requires decisive changes in the country, and Márton Nagy, Hungary's Minister of National Economy, makes false and unfulfillable promises.
Thank you to everyone who came, see you at the next Kecsup-Evening!
