HUNGARY wants to negotiate a new loan from the International Monetary Fund, a top advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on public television on Thursday.
Hungary narrowly escaped bankruptcy in late 2008 when it was thrown a 20-billion-euro (S$34.3 billion) financial lifeline by the IMF, the World Bank and the European Union. That agreement is scheduled to expire in October.
Speaking on M1 television, PM Orban's chief aide Gyorgy Szapary said Budapest was hoping to see that agreement extended until the end of the year and a new loan starting in January.
'The government would like to extend the loan, which is set to expire in October, until December, so there is no break in the programme. And then we'd like to negotiate a new agreement for 2011,' Mr Szapary said.
Hungary has not drawn on the complete amount of the original 20-billion-euro loan, with the previous Socialist administration saying the improved economic situation allowed the government to drum up financing on the markets itself.
Mr Szapary said Budapest only expected to tap the remaining amount of the current agreement 'in case something extraordinary happens in the markets.' The government hoped to start negotiations in July when a delegation from the IMF and the EU visits Hungary, the aide added. -- AFP