The primary objective of Magyar Nemzeti Bank is to achieve and maintain price stability. The central bank of Hungary defines its 3 per cent inflation target in terms of the consumer price index. However, this indicator is quite volatile, and many of its components are sensitive to temporary...

This article examines how the trade balance (or net exports) changed during the crisis. In the early-to-mid-2000s, Hungary ran a trade deficit as external indebtedness grew. Since the crisis, balance sheet adjustments by economic agents have substantially reduced imports for consumption and...

In the autumn of 2006 the Magyar Nemzeti Bank launched a series of research projects on the pricing of products and services with non-regulated prices, which is expected to last for one and a half years. Store-level price quotes used for the Hungarian CSO’s (Central Statistical Office)...

Expectations of market participants play an important role in monetary policy making. The main reason for this is that expectations influence the behaviour of investors and prices in financial markets. In this article, we present two sources of information on the expectations of financial market...

In a normal economic cycle, monetary policy decisions are not influenced directly by the size of potential output. In making their decisions, central banks take into account the difference between potential and actual output, i.e. the size of the output gap, which shows the cyclical position of...