Quick answer
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Hungary's central bank, targets 3% inflation with a tolerance band of one percentage point either side and sets a single base rate at monthly meetings. It raised that rate to 13.00% in September 2022 as inflation headed to 25.7%, and has been cutting since October 2023. The base rate has been 5.50% since 26 August 2026, with inflation at 1.3%, below the bottom of the band.
Who this guide is for
Use this guide for USD/HUF and EUR/HUF research, Central European rate comparisons, or to understand why Hungarian real interest rates are among the highest in the region.
MNB policy snapshot
The settings below come from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank and official statistics as stored on the Hungary data page. Each figure carries its own date, because a rate, an inflation print and an exchange rate taken from different points in the cycle give a misleading picture.
| Measure | Latest | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Base rate | 5.50% | Since 26 August 2026 |
| Consumer price inflation | 1.3% | August 2026, annual |
| Real policy rate | 4.20 pp | Policy rate less inflation |
| USD/HUF | 328.90 | 2 October 2026 |
Mandate and instruments
The MNB's primary objective is to achieve and maintain price stability. Without prejudice to that, it supports financial stability and the government's economic policy. Price stability is defined as a 3% medium-term inflation target with a tolerance band of plus or minus one percentage point.
Decisions are taken by the Monetary Council, which holds a rate-setting meeting each month. The base rate is the main instrument, and it sits inside an interest-rate corridor formed by the overnight deposit rate below and the overnight collateralised lending rate above. Changes to the width or symmetry of that corridor are a policy signal in their own right.
The Council publishes a quarterly Inflation Report with its forecasts, and the statement after each meeting is explicit about the conditions it is watching: inflation, risk sentiment toward emerging markets, and the stability of the forint.
From emergency tightening to a cautious easing
The base rate was 0.60% in mid-2020. The MNB began raising it in June 2021, earlier than most European central banks, and accelerated sharply in 2022: from 2.40% at the end of 2021 to 13.00% by 28 September 2022. Inflation still peaked at 25.7% in January 2023, the highest in the European Union at the time.
Cuts began on 25 October 2023 and ran through September 2024, taking the rate to 6.50%. The Council then held for almost a year and a half as inflation climbed back above the tolerance band, reaching 5.6% in February 2025, and resumed in February 2026 once price growth fell quickly. Four reductions in 2026 have brought the rate to 5.50%.
With inflation at 1.3% in August 2026, the real policy rate is above four percentage points. That gap is deliberate: the Council has repeatedly tied the pace of easing to forint stability rather than to inflation alone.
Base rate and inflation
The central bank base rate (percent) against annual consumer price inflation (percent), 2020 to 2026.
Takeaway: The base rate lagged a much larger inflation shock on the way up and has stayed far above inflation on the way down.
The real policy rate
Subtracting inflation from the policy rate gives a simple measure of how restrictive policy is. It is backward-looking, because it uses realised rather than expected inflation, but it is transparent and comparable across countries.
Real policy rate
Base rate in force at month end less annual consumer price inflation, percentage points.
Takeaway: The real base rate fell to -12.7 percentage points in January 2023, peaked at +6.2 in January 2024 and stood at +4.2 in August 2026.
How MNB policy reaches the forint
The forint floats freely and is one of the more volatile European currencies, so the exchange rate is a central part of the MNB's reaction function. A weaker forint raises import prices quickly in a small open economy, which is why rate decisions are often framed around maintaining a positive real rate and a yield advantage over the euro area.
That yield advantage attracts carry positions, which support the currency in calm markets and unwind abruptly when global risk appetite falls. USD/HUF fell from about 359 at the start of October 2024 to about 329 two years later, a period in which the base rate stayed well above euro-area and US rates.
The USD/HUF dashboard puts the exchange rate beside the rate differential and the release calendar for both economies.
A decision-day workflow
- Note the base rate decision and whether the corridor rates moved with it.
- Read the statement for the weight placed on forint stability and risk sentiment.
- Compare the latest inflation print with the 2% to 4% tolerance band.
- Compute the real policy rate; a narrowing gap is the signal carry positions respond to.
- Check the quarterly Inflation Report for changes to the forecast path.
The policy rate history, with the timestamp of each announcement, is available from the API for backtests and dashboards:
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
"https://api.fxmacrodata.com/v1/announcements/huf/policy_rate?start_date=2019-01-01"Official sources and related research
- Magyar Nemzeti Bank: policy decisions and statements.
- Hungarian Central Statistical Office: consumer price statistics.
- Hungary macro data: every tracked indicator and the release calendar.
- Policy rates by country and risk-free rates by country: the same measures across every covered market.
- Policy rate cycles across currencies: how tightening and easing phases compare.
