Brussels expressed its concerns over the Hungarian government’s plan to help people with foreign currency-denominated mortgages by allowing debt pay-off well under the market rate. Austria is infuriated and “firmly rejects” the measure.

The latest plan by the government includes measures affecting the cost of borrowing, utilities prices and foreign currency-denominated mortgages. There may be a higher VAT rate for luxury purchases and the public jobs program expanded.

The Hungary's Economy Minister György Matolcsy has proposed increasing the value-added tax on luxury items in a letter sent to European Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta, the Ministry of National Economy said in a statement on Wednesday.

Hungarian government representative András Kármán and the British Ambassador to Hungary, Greg Dorey signed a Double Taxation Agreement in Budapest. The agreement reflects modern business developments between the two countries.

Hungary is to further reduce its public debt in October and November, taking it down from 77% of gross domestic product to 73%, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a news conference after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Bank of China Ltd. may be a new addition to the currently 15-strong list of primary dealers of Hungarian government bonds, CEO of the State Debt Management Agency (ÁKK), Gyula Pleschinger told Bloomberg in an interview on Monday.

A new natural gas pipeline connecting Hungary and Croatia is now operational. It is a milestone event for Croatia as for the past 33 years, the country's only access to international gas pipelines had been a single line to Slovenia.

The legal framework for the Nabucco Pipeline has been finalized on Wednesday with the signing of the Project Support Agreements between NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International GmbH and the five transit countries.

US-based contract electronics manufacturer Jabil Circuit will create 670 new jobs at its plant in the northeastern Hungarian city of Tiszaújváros, creating 370 new jobs, a Hungarian Economics Ministry official has announced.

Hungary's Constitutional Court has ruled that the retroactive effect of a 98% tax designed to regain severance pay was unconstitutional. The tax was aimed to cover golden handshakes made up to five years before the law came into effect.

Hungary’s 100 richest people increased their wealth by 12% year on year in 2010 to HUF 2,116 billion (EUR 7.98 bn), according to a list compiled by local business daily Napi Gazdaság. OTP Bank’s Chairman-CEO Sándor Csányi tops the list.

There was a slight improvement in the GKI-Erste confidence indices following a plummet observed in March. Business confidence rose palpably while consumer confidence grew only marginally, and both remained below their respective February levels.

The member states of the European Union advocate sound budget policy. That was the conclusion observers drew from the two-day informal meeting of Economic and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) in Hungary this past week-end.

As a result of a EUR 3.75 billion US dollar bond issuance at the end of March, Hungary’s international reserves jumped to an all-time high EUR 35.7 billion in the third month of 2011, according to the central bank (NBH) on Thursday.

The Minister of National Development, Tamás Fellegi says the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, the only such plant in Hungary, is safe and will stand the stress test. He made the statement following his visit to the plant this week.