Hungary to start vaccinations, launch anti-COVID economic measures
- Hungary's economy took a big hit in the pandemic, and the government expects gross domestic output to shrink by about 6% in 2020 followed by a modest rebound in 2021.
BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday said he would announce new measures on Saturday to fight the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, adding that they would take effect on Jan. 1.
Hungary's economy took a big hit in the pandemic, and the government expects gross domestic output to shrink by about 6% in 2020 followed by a modest rebound in 2021.
"Tomorrow morning I would like to announce what next steps we will introduce from January 1 in the economic action plan designed to avert the economic crisis caused by the virus," Orban said in an interview with state radio mr1.
He added that even with the economic plans on track he expected a long ideological fight with the European Union over matters like immigration and gender equality to continue.
Nationalist Orban, in power for a decade, faces his toughest elections in 2022, fighting the effects of the pandemic, persistent moral and corruption scandals, against an opposition that has unified for the first time to unseat him.
Hungary and Poland, long accused of a democratic backslide, for weeks blocked the European Union's 1.85 trillion euro budget and coronavirus recovery fund to avert an immediate prospect of submitting to rule-of-law standards or lose EU funding.
Orban has said he expects Hungary to emerge from the pandemic by about April. He said he expected vaccinations to start on Dec. 27 or 28, adding that the first vaccine shipment will be enough to inoculate about 35,000 people.
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