Consulting Before Tax Reform

August 19th 2008

Major tax consultancies Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG supported by the National Association of Employers and Industrialists, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Joint Venture Association and the Hungarian Association of International Businesses introduced their proposal for a possible Hungarian tax reform - reports MTI Econews. The Finance Ministry welcomed the proposal and agreed that some of the suggestions should be included in the changes the government would plan to make in 2009. Meanwhile the Ministry claimed that the proposal would decrease the central budget by HUF 1,250 billion (EUR 5.3 billion), not by HUF 1,100 billion (EUR 4.65 billion) as the proposal states.

Hungary Protects Her Genuine Wine Brand Name

August 15th 2008

Hungary’s government decided on 13th August 2008, to make international legal steps in order to protect the genuine Hungarian wine brand, "Tokaji". The name is bonded to the Northern Tokaj region and Hungarian oenologists claim that the geographical environment makes the local product inimitable. Italian rivals refuse the argument insisting on their interpretation that the brand name is only tied to a certain type of grape. Slovakian producers label their wine ‘Tokajshka’ as the region stretches beyond the Hungarian-Slovakian border. However, an EU approval to use the brand name was only given to wines produced form a grapes harvested on the 565 acre field.

State Investment Agency Looks for Alternative Sites for Apollo Tyres Plant

August 15th 2008

The Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency (ITDH) has started looking for sites for a new EUR 200 million factory which India's Apollo Tyres wants to build in Hungary, the Ministry of National Development and Economy said on August 15th 2008. The ministry says that several cities have already expressed an interest in becoming the new location for the plant. Apollo Tyres stated on August 14th that it had asked ITDH to identify alternative locations in Hungary for the plant after withdrawing its plans to locate in Gyöngyös (in North East Hungary) because of delays in acquiring permits and a potentially divisive local referendum. Apollo Tyres added that it will also be searching for alternative locations in Europe at the same time.

Chinoin to Use Money Saved Because of Scrapped Fee for R&D

August 15th 2008

Hungarian drug maker Chinoin, a unit of sanofi-aventis, will be able to spend an additional HUF 1 billion on R&D because of the elimination of a registration fee for drug company sales representatives, spokesman Istvan Rozsa has announced.
The HUF 5 million-per-rep fee, introduced as part of government austerity measures at the beginning of 2007, was scrapped in June 2008 after Hungary's Constitutional Court ruled it to be unconstitutional.

Hungary Q2 GDP Grew by 2.1%

August 15th 2008

Hungary's second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an unadjusted 2.2% and a calendar-year adjusted 2.1% from the same period a year earlier, according to a first estimate by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) and its research arm Ecostat, published on August 16th 2008. KSH noted that the preliminary figures have a margin of error of +/- 0.2 percentage points.
The Q2 figure compares to analysts' estimate of 1.9%. In the first half year, GDP was up 1.6% from the same period in 2007.

R&D Office Announces Tenders for HUF 6 Billion in Grant Money

August 14th 2008

Hungary's National R&D Office announced on August 14th 2008 tenders for a combined HUF 6 billion in grant money available over the next three years for commercially useful R&D projects.
The office expects 250-400 applications for the funding. Between 55- 80 applications are expected to be accepted.

Lending Growth and Forex Gains Raise OTP Q2 Profits by 47 %

August 14th 2008

The second-quarter after-tax profit of Hungary's OTP Bank has jumped by 46.6% to HUF 74.3 billion from the same period a year earlier, boosted by lending growth and big forex gains, the bank said in its consolidated IFRS report for the period, published on August 14th 2008.
OTP Bank's stock of loans to clients has risen 23.6% to HUF 6,163.5 billion in the 12 months leading to June 30th 2008.
The bank also recorded a HUF 10.1 billion unrealized forex gain in Q2, a gain of more than ten times on the same period a year earlier, as the forint appreciated markedly against the euro and the Swiss franc.
Excluding the effect of open forex positions, dividends and net cash transfers, after-tax profit continued its strong rise, increasing by 29.5% to HUF 63.9 billion.

Hungarians Buy Nearly Twice as Many Laptops as Desktop Computers

August 13th 2008

Hungarians bought nearly twice as many laptops as desktop computers in the first half of 2008, compared to the same period a year earlier, business daily Vilaggazdasag reported on August 13th 2008, citing figures compiled by market research company IDC.
Hungarians bought 160,500 laptops and 88,200 desktops in H1.
Laptop sales exceeded desktop sales for the first time last year as prices dropped and consumers bought laptops as part of special mobile Internet service packages.

Suzuki Turns Out One-Third More Cars at Hungary Plant

August 13th 2008

Japanese carmaker Suzuki turned out 149,438 vehicles at its plant in Hungary in the first half of the year, 33.3% more than in the same period a year earlier as the company continued to expand production at the unit, Magyar Suzuki said on August 13th 2008.
Suzuki started expanding capacity at its plant in Esztergom in 2003. The company aims to raise annual production numbers to 300,000 in 2008, up from 232,480 in 2007. Magyar Suzuki plans to spend HUF 31 billion in 2008 to expand capacity and modernize its production equipment.