heli2010

hi Duztee they are trading june contracts at moment and will swap to sept over the next 8 days and if traders are correct we should see a gradual daily rise untill the 5th June
I am lead to believe one of the fundamentals is there is increasing activity of new property agents in the country

duztee

Thanks for the insight, I am not exchanging at the moment but it is always useful to know how the system functions.

Rural Hungary

Will watch with interest

FenTiger

A high HUF exchange rate to the £ is only as good as the cost of living at the time. The key issue is how much your HUF will buy you, never mind how much HUF your £1 would buy! If the exchange rate has increased favourably by 10% from last week you may think you need less £s to buy same amount of HUF but if food, etc. has gone up 15% you'll actually be worse off!

Pollypaprika

Good point FenTiger. I hate seeing the exchange rate fluctuate wildly like it has done in the past...it is just passed on to the consumer and certainly the cost of food has greatly increased since we first moved here. It is no good for anyone, and certainly not good for the country as a whole.

fidobsa

It would be interesting to see inflation figures for Hungary over the last 30 years or so. It was not that long ago that there were "fillér" coins that were the Hungarian equivalent of a penny. Apparently 20 years ago a loaf cost 20 Ft.

duztee

A quick search shows last month to be the record low for inflation @1.7%
the lowest for 39 years.
Highest was 31% in June 1995.
Over the last year food and clothing cost have risen 3.4%
Alcohol and tabbacco 10%
road fuel is down -0.6%
gas and electric have dropped -8% ( this is due to government regulation passed last year to limit the cost of energy)

The overall average increase over recent years has been approx 11%

richardmc

Sterling to forint at OTP today was 337 forints to the pound, this is 'in bank' sterling to forint accounts, going ddooown

Rural Hungary

That's just the old ones gone bankrupt and setting up again

HannahJ38

As Rammy has mentioned the exchange rates fluctuate at all times and therefore it's often hard to decide when is the best time to exchange your money, and as it is such a large sum you don't want to be dumped with any hidden handling fees or charges. The savings accounts with 8% rates in Hungary are extremely attractive rates, wouldn't find anything like that in the UK !

richardmc

OTP quoted 4% last week in their "Time deposit" account

duztee

The 4% is for the short term 3 month time deposit, which was the only one available to me when I first arrived without a registration card.
After the 3 months and with card in hand I was able to move the funds to a yearly deposit which guaranteed 8% for the initial 3 months, after which it could fluctuate between a guaranteed minimum 6% to a maximum 15% ( I should be so lucky!)
But even the 4% short term rate is better than you will find in a UK bank, and very useful until you get registration/address card, or in deed if you just want your money to earn interest in the short term between transferring and buying property.

richardmc

Got registration card but didnt know it would get more in interest and the nice english speaking lady said the short term account was 2 monthly. Will enquire properly on next visit and consider transferring more money over as yes interest rates are a sight better here.

duztee

Oh! I would add...
Don't go to the bank unless you have plenty of time to spare!
It took me well over an hour to do all the paperwork (most of which seemed unnecessary) and that was with an English speaking assistant.

These Hungarians DO so love their paperwork, I took 4 bags of rubbish to the recycling centre last week, and was waiting for an age while the controller studiously filled in two different forms in duplicate (one for household, one for electric goods) and then filled in the receipt form for the total payment.
4 bags @ 200 frts = 800 fts.
Never worth the bother but he was most insistent he do it.

duztee

Hi Richard,
I think it also depends on which way the wind is blowing at the time. :-)