Hungarian inflation stable at 40-year low 0.9pc: official data

BUDAPEST: Hungary's 12-month-inflation remained at a 40-year low of 0.9 percent for the second month running, official data showed on Wednesday.

The national statistics office KSH said that the low rate in November was mainly a result of government-enforced household utility price cuts which offset rising food, alcohol and tobacco prices.

The central bank has cut its key interest rate repeatedly over the last year, and in recent months concern has arisen in several countries in the emerging central Europe region as well as in the eurozone about the strength of disinflation.

Hungarian inflation, one of the highest in the EU in 2012, plunged to a 40-year low level of 0.9 percent in October, surprising analysts who had forecast a rate of about 1.3 percent.

In a move that critics said was aimed at wooing voters ahead of elections in 2014, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government cut retail prices of gas, electricity and district heating by 10 percent in January.

Another 10-percent cut in energy and utility prices took effect in November, although KSH said the impact of that cut would be seen only in the monthly inflation figure when consumers pay their bills for the previous month.