Magyar pushes euro entry for Hungary

Hungary’s new leader, Péter Magyar, is pushing euro adoption to the top of his agenda – a move that would mark the largest expansion of the single-currency bloc since Greece joined in 2001

Péter Magyar: Says path to euro is part of reset with Brussels after Viktor Orbán strained relations with EU

SWEDEN
DENMARK
POLAND
CZECHIA
HUNGARY
ROMANIA

Around 350 million people use euro, world’s second-most traded and held reserve currency after U.S. dollar

Euro-zone member
21 countries in 27-member EU have adopted euro since its launch in 1999
Considering joining euro
Opt-out from euro
Other EU states

CONDITIONS TO ENTER
To adopt euro, Hungary must meet EU convergence criteria, including inflation aligned with EU benchmarks, sound public finances and at least two years in ERM II exchange-rate mechanism

Headline inflation
Euro-zone
Hungarian

0
5
10
15
20
25
30

2022
2023
2021
2024
2025
2026
0.9
2.9
Mar 2026: 2.6
Mar 2026: 2.1
Jan 23: 26.2
Oct 2022: 10.6

Hungary’s inflation has converged with euro-zone levels after sharp post-pandemic spike

Euro adoption means Hungary’s central bank would have to lower its target from 3% to ECB’s* 2%

Sources: Bloomberg, Eurostat
* European Central Bank
Picture: Newscom
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