Hungarian Assets Drop as Orban Targets Banks to Fix Budget
- Budget gap widens to over $7.3 billion in first half of 2024
- Shares in OTP Bank, forint drop after new taxes are announced
An OTP Bank branch in Budapest.
Photographer: Akos Stiller/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Hungary’s stocks and currency fell after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government again resorted to its tactic of imposing special taxes on banks and other industries to plug gaps in its budget.
It plans to keep current levels of windfall taxes on banks, energy and foreign-owned companies, despite earlier promises to lower them, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said on Monday. He said the measures would net the budget an additional 400 billion forint ($1.1 billion).