Márton Nagy, the minister of economic development, said Hungary's March inflation data was in line with the government’s expectations, having peaked in January before falling.
Minister Nagy told business daily Világgazdaság on Wednesday that headline inflation was 25.7% in January, 25.4% in February, and 25.2% in March. “So the improvement, while moderate, is constant and conforms to a trend,” he said. Among the government’s goals are the priorities of preventing a recession this year and reducing inflation to single digits by year-end, he added. Nagy said supermarkets were starting to compete on price-cutting, and this was filtering through to the data, noting that in December, food prices grew by an annual 44.8% before gradually falling to 42.6% by March. The minister noted 20 government measures to control prices and protect the economy, with caps on interest rates paid on loans and food prices, cheap business loans and support for energy-intensive businesses, among others. “The measures are working, their effect will be more and more visible…” he said. The government is establishing an online price monitoring system together with the country’s Competition Office, he noted.