The main point of this article is debating whether Hungry's economy is doing significantly better under prime minister Orban or not. On the surface, the economy looks like its doing much better than in previous years. Kingsley writes, "Government debt, as a proportion of Hungary’s gross domestic product, has fallen more than 6 percentage points since 2010. The country’s credit ratings have improved. The budget deficit has roughly halved. Growth has almost quadrupled. Wages have risen by more than 10 percent. Though still high, deprivation has fallen by nearly half — not least in places like Siklosnagyfalu, where villagers benefit from their workfare wages. Officially, unemployment has dropped by nearly two-thirds." This all seems very positive, but on the other hand, it seems as if government corruption is rising and many people are doing work that doesn't not really need to be done which is the reason why the unemployment rate seems so small.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/world/europe/viktor-orban-hungary-economy-election.html
2 comments:
Even though the employment rate is misleading, it has positively affected many villagers where they now have permanent access to food and basic infrastructure such as bridges and drainage system. They are also now equipped for new farming machinery so even if employment isn't as high as they claim I think, atleast so far, the new leadership has been improving the economy.
It will be interesting to see if the growth pattern of Hungary will follow that of the asian tigers during the asian miracle. It seems that we are witnessing rural growth similar to the extent seen in China. As wages continue to rise, it is likely we will see populations in major urban areas increase which may increase business investment and propel GDP growth further upwards.
Post a Comment