The Hungarian government has brought forward state pension hikes from November to June in response to higher-than- expected inflation, a pensions' council official said on Thursday, according to dpa. National Pensioners' Council official Lajos Korozs told state news agency MTI that Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany had authorized the move at a meeting earlier in the day. Korozs refused to reveal the size of the hike. The finance ministry on Wednesday raised the predicted rate of 2008 inflation from 4.8 per cent to 5.9 per cent and cut projections for economic growth from 2.8 per cent to 2.4 per cent. Some analysts have suggested that the move may be another sign that the government is slowing down its economic reforms as its poor poll ratings and a recent defeat in a referendum on fees for medical treatment and education - part of the reforms - weaken its resolve. Hungary is currently going through a slump as measures aimed at cutting the budget deficit and, ultimately, getting the Central European nation ready for the euro hit home. Economic growth slowed to 1.3 per cent in 2007, from 3.9 per cent the previous year, and inflation hit a high of 9 per cent in March last year. Inflation has been slow to come down and was 6.9 per cent year-on- year in February.
