Business leaders in Hungary are worried about the country's deteriorating investment climate

Business leaders in Hungary are worried about the country's deteriorating investment climate. Calls on the country's Central Bank to cut interest rates and on the government to curb state spending have so far gone unheeded. All the Hungarians seem interested in is a major fraud and money-laundering scandal – and especially in the question: who's to blame? The time when Hungary used to be a model scholar in the transition process to a free market economy has been over for some time. Recent governments - the last one (conservative) under Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán, and the incumbent (left-liberal) coalition led by Péter Medgyessy (no party affiliation) - seem caught up in inter-party squabbling rather than dealing with the necessary political and economic reforms prior to joining the European Union in May next year. Central Bank governor Zsigmond Járai is becoming increasingly skeptical about the government's stated aim to join the euro zone by 2008. The Finance ministry is constantly coming up with economic growth predictions that have undergone downward adjustments – from 4 percent to 3 to 3.5, recently. Last year's spring election, with its record turnout, demonstrated that a majority of Hungarians no longer supported Mr Orbán's us-Hungarians-we-are-the-greatest philosophy: by a slim majority voters preferred the alternative, a coalition of socialists and progressive liberals, led by the wealthy businessman-banker Mr Medgyessy.