BUDAPEST - Hungary’s economy will struggle to grow next year if a coronavirus vaccine is not found, finance minister Mihaly Varga said in an interview published Saturday, as the government prepares to announce more steps to try to revive growth.
Varga told newspaper Magyar Nemzet that if a vaccine is not available by around the middle of next year “then according to our pessimistic calculations it could happen that we will see economic growth hardly exceeding zero.” A third scenario is a protracted recovery with 3%-4% growth, but that is also conditional on a vaccine being available, he added.The country’s weakened economic prospects could represent the biggest threat to nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s decade-long rule as he prepares to face parliamentary elections in the first half of 2022.