Hungarian central bank wants IMF to leave after it pays back bail-out loan

Budapest has announced it is considering paying back its bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund early as well as closing the IMF’s Hungarian office.

Gyorgy Matolcsy, president of the central bank, said in a letter to the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde that, while they appreciated “the valuable support” the fund had given Hungary, the stand-by credit programme “is almost complete”.

As such, Mr Matolcsy said, it was no longer necessary for the IMF to keep an office in Hungary. The IMF said its representative in Hungary was due to leave soon anyway.

Hungary still owes $2.125 billion (£1.4 billion) to the IMF from its original credit line of $25.5 billion (£16.8 billion).

AP