Page 65 - bne magazine September 2023

bne September 2023
Opinion 65
so high in Hungary. (Hungarian multinational food retailers and energy firms do, however, pay punitive sector taxes that contribute to inflation).
The government seems to have one foot on the accelerator (e.g. continuously high deficit spending), another foot on the brakes (the central bank’s interest rates rising to over 15%), and no clarity as to who is driving the vehicle. High uncertainty contributes to inflation.
Meanwhile, core inflation (e.g. excluding the most volatile prices such as energy and food) remains at 20.8% as of June 2023, meaning that inflation is becoming “baked in”. Wage growth was at 17.9% as of May, meaning that real wages declined in the first half of the year – a socially painful component of ongoing slow disinflation.
The poor, who by definition spend a high percentage of income on foodstuffs and energy prices, are seeing their
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paychecks decimated by 29% food inflation and record energy prices. Retirees see their savings destroyed. As in most instances, it is the proverbial man in the street who pays the price for poor governance.
We do not see a reversal of any of the above factors in the foreseeable future. Hence inflation in Hungary is likely to trend at a considerable premium to the EU. Nor does the government’s objective or reaching a single digit inflation rate this year seem realistic.
Les Nemethy is the CEO and founder of Euro-Phoenix Financial Advisors Ltd and a former official at the World Bank.
Dr. Peter Akos Bod is an economics professor and former governor of the Hungarian National Bank.
Violence against women becomes a mobilising force in Southeast Europe
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
Thousands of people took to the streets in towns and cities across Bulgaria on July 31 to protest against a knife attack on a young woman and the poor handling of the case by a local court in Stara Zagora.
The events of July 31 were the latest protests in the Southeast Europe region sparked by violent attacks on women, following protests in several countries in the Western Balkans in recent years urging the authorities to do more to tackle violence against women and femicides.
As well as challenging cultural norms that fail to take violence against women sufficiently seriously, there has
also been strong criticism from protesters against official corruption and the inadequacies of the local justice systems.
The incident that sparked widespread anger in Bulgaria occurred on June 26, when a 26-year-old man named Georgi Georgiev allegedly assaulted 18-year-old Debora Mihaylova with a knife, inflicting multiple wounds that were severe enough to require over 400 stitches.
Georgiev was taken into custody but released on July 5 when the Stara Zagora court controversially dismissed Mihaylova’s injuries as only minor. He was then detained
again on July 30 and charged with making a death threat to the same woman by text message. Georgiev has denied the accusations against him.
On July 31, protests in support of the 18-year-old were held in front of the courthouses in Sofia, Stara Zagora and dozens of other towns and cities across the country. The demonstration in Sofia was organised by Feminist Mobilisations with the
Thousands of people demonstrated across Bulgaria on July 31. / Feminist Mobilisation
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