This year as well, the Board of the Hungarian Economic Association (HEA) compiled and sent to the leaders and key decision-makers of economic policy the main findings and policy recommendations drawn from the section meetings of the annual economists’ conference. The document draws attention, among other things, to the need to prevent a renewed flare-up of inflation by better coordinating fiscal and monetary policy and by strengthening the credibility and predictability of economic policy. It also stresses that boosting competitiveness requires revitalising domestic R&D – with a particular focus on the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI). The package of recommendations can be downloaded at this link.
On 4–5 September 2025, the MKT organised the 63rd Annual Itinerant Congress – the largest yearly event of the Hungarian economics profession – at the University of Pannonia in Veszprém. Over the two days of the event, nearly 100 experts shared their thoughts in two plenary sessions and sixteen section meetings. Based on the presentations delivered in these sessions and the AI-assisted summaries prepared from them, the compiled package of recommendations calls the attention of decision-makers – including the Prime Minister, the Governor of the Central Bank, several members of the Government, and the President of the Fiscal Council – to 24 key points. Among these is the importance of protecting central bank independence in order to safeguard the country’s creditworthiness; therefore, economic policy communication should avoid evaluating or criticising central bank interest-rate policy. Monetary policy should keep the real interest rate on a consistent path and communicate in a way that clearly reinforces the primacy of the inflation target so as to prevent renewed speculation against the forint and the recurrence of inflationary pressures. At the same time, fiscal policy should avoid “fiscal alcoholism.”
Several of the recommendations address issues of economic development. The document states that budgetary subsidies should be granted to foreign investors only on the basis of prior return-on-investment calculations. Given that the current labour-market situation no longer calls for the creation of large numbers of jobs with low domestic added value, only investments that generate higher domestic value added should be supported. The resilience of the economy must be strengthened by diversifying trade and financing channels, deepening the domestic capital market, and reinforcing energy security in order to reduce exposure to geopolitical and trade-policy shifts. Within SME development programmes, priority should be given to promoting the spread of artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital decision-support systems. To enhance economic competitiveness and the commercialisation of R&D results, cooperation among universities, research institutes, and businesses must be strengthened. In the coming years, the application of artificial intelligence should be placed at the centre of efforts in R&D and innovation. To this end, nationwide programmes are needed to develop data-management competencies, data protection, data sovereignty, digital independence, and the infrastructure for data management and artificial intelligence.
The HEA’s package of recommendations can be downloaded at the following link: https://mkt.hu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Vandorgyulesi_ajanlasok_2025_final.pdf. All presentations and round-table discussions of the 63rd Annual Economists’ Conference are available for viewing and listening on the conference website at https://kozgazdasz-vandorgyules.blog.hu/.