National Bank of Hungary Holds Rates At 8%

This decision is hardly surprising given the level of the forint and yesterdays construction numbers.

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) has on Monday decided to leave the base rate unchanged at 8.00%.


As I say, apart from the forint this was presumeably not far from the front of their minds:

Construction sector output falls 3.3% yr/yr in August


Output volume of Hungary's construction sector fell 3.7% in September compared to the same month a year earlier, according to working-day adjusted and decreased 4.8% according to unadjusted figures, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) reported on Monday.

Compared to August, output was up a seasonally- and working day-adjusted 2.7%. In the first nine months of 2006, output volume of the construction sector fell 2.1% from the same period last year. At current prices, construction sector output was worth Ft 236.2 billion (€915.5 million) in September and it was worth Ft 1,426.7 billion in January-August.