Hungary

Hungary became a Christian kingdom in A.D. 1000 and for many centuries served as a bulwark against Ottoman Turkish expansion in Europe. The kingdom eventually became part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire, which collapsed during World War I. The country fell under Communist rule following World War II. In 1956, a revolt and an announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact were met with a massive military intervention by Moscow. Under the leadership of Janos KADAR in 1968, Hungary began liberalizing its economy, introducing so-called "Goulash Communism." Hungary held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and initiated a free market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Forint (ISO code: HUF)
* Central bank discount rate: 6.25% (31 December 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 6.66% (31 December 2009)
* Stock of money (M1): $30.27 billion (31 December 2009)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $40.7 billion (31 December 2009)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Hungary: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	48 044	47 885	53 190	66 502	84 326	102 076	110 195	113 006	138 757	154 668
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Hungary: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	68.650	61.003	60.206	60.638	62.286	66.122 	68.972 	70.223 	69.385 	73.850
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Hungary: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	38.143	37.343	37.053	36.290	35.714	35.744 	35.551 	35.811 	37.948 	40.655
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Hungary: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.	44.946	40.724	41.242	43.552	43.081	42.314 	42.716 	44.086 	42.884 	45.020
Debt to revenue (years) 	1.800 	1.634 	1.625 	1.671 	1.744 	1.850 	1.940 	1.961 	1.828 	1.817
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Hungary on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Hungary
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries