During the first part of the event Dr. Johannes Wiegand, who works as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is currently assigned as mission chief for Croatia and deputy chief of the regional unit for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), presented the latest data on the economic situation in Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe (CESEE). The outlook is mostly positive with robust growth rates and overall convergence. However, risks remain due to slow growth in the euro area, a surge in financial volatility and geopolitical tensions. Therefore, the IMF proposes as policy priorities for well-recovering economies to focus on strengthening the fiscal buffers and introducing structural reforms. For economies that are still in recession, it is recommended to use fiscal policy to support the domestic demand and to introduce monetary policy measure to combat high inflation.

That far-reaching outlook on the economic development of the CESEE region was followed by a panel discussion on the macroeconomic impacts of the foreign currency loans in CEE. Ákos Domahidi, chancellor of the Andrássy University, and Dr. Andrea Jádi Németh, president of the Harvard Club of Hungary, opened the panel discussion.

It was moderated by Prof Dr. Martina Eckardt, who is head of the chair of public finance at the Andrássy University. The hosts were honoured to welcome Dr. György Surányi, who is the former president of the national bank of Hungary and currently is the CEO and chairman of CIB Bank as well as head of the Central and Eastern Europe Region of Foreign Banks Division at the Banca Intesa, Dr. Dániel Palotai, who is executive director for the monetary policy at the national bank of Hungary, and Dr. Johannes Wiegand as panelists.

Firstly, Mr. Wiegand gave an overview of foreign currency borrowing in the CEE region. Even though many countries could significantly reduce the level of foreign currency loans since 2008, long-term solutions are still needed. After Mr. Wiegand´s assessment, Mr. Surányi gave an in-depth analysis of the origins and development of the foreign currency crisis in Hungary. In his opinion, the Hungarian central bank has not done enough to resolve the crisis. Subsequently, Mr. Palotai had the chance to respond to that and to outline which measures the Hungarian national bank has been taken to address the problem of foreign currency borrowing in Hungary.

As the most urgent problem to still be addressed, Mr. Surányi sees the need for support by the many households that went insolvent due to the foreign currency debt crisis. Also Mr. Wiegand names as a problem, that is not yet fully solved, the high number of non-performing loans. Mr. Palotai mentions as one of the main challenge for the future to provide affordable financing to the SME sector.