Government announces pension rise

In order to compensate pensioners for higher-than-expected inflation, the government has announced pension hikes retroactive from January.

Népszava’s Miklós Bonta finds the government’s 0.6 per cent adjustment of pensions too low. The left-wing commentator recalls that the government announced the pension round-up as the inflation rate rose to 3.6 per cent, 0.6 percentage points higher than forecast originally. Bonta notes that food prices have increased by 7 per cent, and therefore the announced pension adjustment will not cover the additional expenses of elderly Hungarians. In an aside, Bonta criticizes the National Bank for not doing its homework to keep the inflation rate low and thus protect the national currency.

In Magyar Nemzet, Ottó Gajdics dismisses the opposition’s claim that the government is failing pensioners. The pro-government commentator recalls that the Orbán government is reintroducing the 13th-month pension, which the previous socialist-liberal government abolished in 2009. In Gajdics’s calculation, the government will devote 150 billion Forints over the next 12 months to help pensioners overcome the crisis. Gajdics also lambasts the opposition and its intellectual hinterland for trying to seed discontent by suggesting that the government is not doing enough in order to boost post-pandemic economic recovery.

Tags: Forint, inflation, pensioners, pensions