In light of a global downturn, what does the Economic Intelligence Unit think of Hungarys economic outlook?
Daniel Thorniley: Central Europe as a whole has not been very badly impacted… relatively, compared to the rest of the world, because emerging markets also have done reasonably well, again relatively, compared with the developed world. But the banking sector in Central Europe is pretty good. It was not too exposed to the sub-prime mortgages. So, the banking financial sector is staying up and Hungary is pretty good on that as well. Productivity in Hungary and Central Europe is not that bad, so there are some small chinks of light, but trying to see where growth would come from is obviously a challenge. Certainly, 2007 and parts of 2008 will be the bad years for Hungary. And the plan of the government, and I believe the consensus of economists and the Economist Group is that there will be this logical pick-up and the cabinet will loosen slightly towards 2008-2009, so that will help growth a little bit. P.: With upside inflation risks and downside growth risks being so evident, what kind
