National Bank of Hungary governor highlights stronger fundamentals and near EUR 60 billion reserves as support for stability

The National Bank of Hungary published remarks by Governor Mihály Varga from the Portfolio Lending 2026 conference, where he said Hungary had preserved and strengthened stability despite an unfavourable global environment. He argued that the country’s fundamentals were stronger than at the beginning of 2022, citing a balance of payments surplus, a continuously strengthening forint, historically high reserves of nearly EUR 60 billion, and a banking system with adequate liquidity surplus and free capital reserves. Varga framed that assessment against continued geopolitical and trade pressures, including the Russo-Ukrainian war, US customs policy and higher global energy prices linked to the Iranian conflict, alongside weaker European growth than in the United States or China. He said inflation in Hungary had fallen significantly over the past year across a wide range of products, although the Iranian conflict had added to domestic price pressures, while the stronger forint and price restriction measures were slowing the pace of price increases. He also said the Iranian conflict and the new government’s economic policy measures would be important for the inflation outlook, and that strong bank profitability had helped the sector meet dynamic credit demand.