Governor Varga did not appear to be pushing for a stronger forint at today's press conference

HUNGARY - In Brief 28 Apr 2026 by Istvan Racz
The Monetary Council held the base rate unchanged at 6.25% today. The Council discussed only the 'hold' proposal, and the vote was unanimous. This was not at all surprising; the more interesting part of the day was Governor Varga's press conference.There will likely be different interpretations of the Governor's statement. More accurately, it was not the statement, but his responses given to questions, which were kind of provoking him to say something committing, i.e. the questions journalists ask all the time.On the whole, Mr. Varga made a very central-bank-like appearance, speaking in a rather cautious and reserved way on his views about the new government's likely policies, the MNB's expected cooperation with those, and especially Tisza's objective to complete euro convergence by 2030. He said that:- at this moment, little is known about the government's fiscal policies;- of course, they are ready to work with the new government, just like they would do with any other government, as existing law requires;- they will be happy to cooperate with the government on euro convergence, if that is the government's decision;- but euro adoption is more a tool than an objective in itself, there have been successful and less successful euro introductions seen in the past;- the Council actually discussed a document on the ways to meet the conditions for joining the ERM-2 today, and they are going to share this document with the new government;- his personal view on euro introduction in the medium term will always be the same as that of the MNB, and the MNB has not yet decided on its position on the issue yet;- he would prefer the reduction of perceived country risk to appear in l...

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