TakarékBank sees 3.1% GDP growth in 2014, 2.4% in 2015

Hungary’s economic growth is likely to reach 3.1% this year before easing to 2.4% in 2015, TakarékBank has forecast. Further, thanks to faster growth and projected strengthening of the forint, the public debt relative to gross domestic product is expected to decline over the next two years, to 77.5% by the end of 2015, András Oszlay, the bank’s senior analyst, says. The budget deficit is likely to stay below 3% both this year and next, although this would require using up this year’s general reserves of HUF 100 billion, he added. TakarékBank analysts forecast inflation
averaging 0.2% this year.