Hungary’s Orban Launches $7.5 Billion Spending Campaign in U-Turn

  • Hungarian premier backs tax cuts, wage hikes before 2022 vote
  • Next government to face fiscal challenge after spending spree
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is ditching a more than decade-long campaign to slash his country’s debt by launching a spending campaign worth $7.5 billion before next year’s closely fought elections.

After chipping away at Hungary’s borrowing load since returning to power in 2010 -- an effort completely undermined by the Covid-19 pandemic -- Orban is arguing that opening the state’s coffers will boost the economic recovery.