Orban’s Feud With Central Bank Chief Triggers Investor Alarm
- Forint sank to the weakest in a year as dispute escalated
- Issue exposes distrust, policy clash between once close allies
Viktor Orban
Photographer: Milan Jaros/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spent months pushing Hungary’s central bank to cut interest rates more aggressively and lift the country out of recession. The tension is tipping into open conflict.
Once Orban’s right-hand man, Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy is now pitted in an acrimonious confrontation with the government, a dispute that’s descended into a cycle of public name-calling and volleys over rate cuts, central bank independence and credibility.