Unemployment in Hungary averaged 11.4 per cent in the three months to the end of February, official data released by the Central Statistical Office on Monday showed, dpa reported. With Hungarians due to vote in general elections on April 11, the centre-right opposition party Fidesz was quick to condemn the government in light of the latest figures. Fidesz chief of staff Peter Szijjarto criticised the socialist- backed interim government for talking up its success at reining in Hungary's budget deficit while unemployment continues to rise. Government spokesman Domokos Szollar countered by saying the unemployment figures were of consequence of the global economic crisis and not the result of domestic economic policy. Szollar noted that unemployment was higher in Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, and even Poland, the only European Union member state whose economy grew in 2009. Hungary's economy shrank by 6.3 per cent last year and forecasts by the government and analysts suggest there will be little or no net growth this year. Another major challenge facing Hungary's future policymakers was the figure of just 54.6 per cent employment in the 15 to 64 age bracket. This represents a drop of 0.8 percentage points compared to the same period a year earlier, and is among the lowest rates in the European Union. Many in Hungary take early retirement or are pensioned off on invalidity benefits, and roughly 3 million of the population of 10 million are officially retired and receiving state pensions. The ranks of the registered unemployed have not been so swollen in Hungary since 1994, four years after the transition from communism to a free market economy and the closure of much state-owned heavy industry. Opinion polls suggest that the government is set to be punished in the general elections in April, with support for Fidesz well over double that for the Socialist Party.
