Analyst Dániel Molnár revealed the statistics that show how much money households can save due to the margin freeze.Continue reading
Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy has been in talks with representatives of insurance companies to prevent prices from rising, similar to the earlier commitments made by banks and telecoms companies to freeze or reduce premiums. The government’s aim remains to protect the Hungarian population from price rises.
“We will continue to fight against price hikes, and to this end I met today with representatives of insurance companies such as Generali, Allianz Hungária, Groupama, Alfa Vienna Insurance Group, NN, SIGNAL, CIG Pannónia, BNP Paribas and Magyar Posta Biztosító,” the Minister for National Economy announced on his Facebook page.
After food retailers, banks and telecoms companies, insurance companies are next in line. “The goal remains the same: to protect the Hungarian population from price increases,” Márton Nagy emphasized.
The government introduced the margin freeze on March 17 to curb the sharp rise in food prices. As a result of the measure, the prices of hundreds of products have already fallen by an average of 18 percent.
Shortly afterwards, telecoms companies also announced that they would not raise prices or that they would adjust previous price increases.
“The big telecoms operators will not raise their prices until July 1 next year, and those that have already raised their prices this year will bring them back to the level of January 1,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced earlier, adding that this applies to TV, internet and mobile phone services.
Banks have also announced a similar move at the beginning of April.
The agreement between the Hungarian Central Bank and the Hungarian Banking Association will make banking costs simpler, more transparent, and cheaper,
central bank governor Mihály Varga said. The new agreement includes five measures to strengthen information and reduce the fees for certain retail financial services. As a result, banks will in future make basic accounts free of charge as long as the inflation rate does not fall below the upper limit of the central bank’s tolerance band (4%) for three consecutive months.
Viktor Orbán said in an interview on Kossuth Radio in April 4 that there have been price increases in three areas that have hit Hungarian families hard. One was food, the second was telecoms services, and the third was banking services.
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