Housing subsidies cut

"In the past couple of weeks and months," László began, "it was clear that the market was becoming nervous." He explained that the main issues of economic policy had been decided in the past two to three months and that the inflation target risk was higher than it should be. He continued that the finance ministry had "many discussions with the central bank (The Hungarian National Bank or MNB), the prime minister and government." László said that the ministry had to "initiate some measures" which had, according to the minister, the clear support of government and the MNB. László commented that a number of savings would have to be made and was hoping to cut Ft80 billion ($369.9 million) from the national deficit next year. While the finance ministry was considering savings within government departments, László said that last year, the total value of housing loans increased by Ft700 billion ($3.25 billion) which was roughly 3-4% of GDP. He believed that this "directly affected the current account deficit". "Tough measures" were to be introduced, László said. "We believe that Ft300 billion ($1.39 billion) less in housing loans could be drawn by the public," László commented, adding that the difference could be made up by the banking sector.