Some Questions of the Introduction of Euro in Hungary

Abstract

The question of monetary integration was part of discussions on European integration from the beginning, in Hungary. That applied to Euro as well, and there was no question that it is part of our integration project. We have different waves of discussions, but there was an overwhelming support of the project from great number of the experts. The discussions were professional, less politicized and divided compared to Poland or Czech Republic, and several high quality studies were published on the issue. The discussions intensified again last year and early this year and several studies and articles were published. Among them, the initiative of Hungarian Nation Bank (HNB) on Maastricht22, and the dispute between the Hungarian Minister of Finances (Mihály Varga) and the president of HNB (György Matolcsy) got particular attention. I refer to two articles of the Journal of Counterbalanace (Egyensúly), one from Bod Péter Ákos ((former President of the Hungarian National Bank) and István Dobozi (Former Lead Economist at the World Bank). This article refers and reflects on the main points of these discussions.