Retail margin caps may be lifted quite soon

HUNGARY - In Brief 04 Oct 2026 by Istvan Racz

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Two days ago, PM Magyar visited the economically less prosperous north-eastern region of Hungary, on the occasion that the newly established National Asset Recovery and Protection Agency (NVVH) previously took into custody a former economy minister of the Fidesz government in the 2010s, not long ago still a high-power local autocrat and oligarch of the region, arguably a person with limited popularity in the said part of the country, with a view to investigating charges of large-scale bribery brought up against that gentleman. This action by the NVVH formed part of a recent acceleration of Tisza's anticorruption drive indirectly (as NVVH is formally independent from the government), which has been one of Tisza's key political mandates. According to a recent opinion poll, seven out of ten adult people in Hungary believes that former PM Orbán's regime could be legitimately described as a 'mafia state', or at last those who think so have a serious point. Out of Tisza voters 85%, and out of Fidesz voters only 1% believes so. In other words, whether an average adult voted for Tisza or Fidesz in April was fundamentally decided by his/her view if the Fidesz regime was dead corrupt or not.However, an important side-product of Mr. Magyar's visit at this lower-income region, where agriculture has an above-average importance in economic activity, hit badly by the repeated extreme drought of this year, was his comments on the administrative caps introduced on the retail margins of 44 types of basic food and household items early last year. Somewhat unexpectedly, and certainly for the first time speaking this way, he said that the government 'must seriously consider' the eliminatio...