Budapest - The European Commission gave conditional approval Tuesday for a consortium led by Rail Cargo Austria (RCA) to purchase MAV Cargo, the freight wing of the state-owned Hungarian railways.

The deal was a[pproved on condition RCA - a subsidiary of the Austrian state railway company OBB - sever all structural ties and review its contractual links with the only other consortium member, the small Hungarian-Austrian railway company GySEV.

The RCA-GySEV consortium won the tender for the privatisation of MAV Cargo in May last year with a bid of 102.5 billion forints (41 million euros), along with a commitment to invest a further 43.5 billion forints (174 million euros) on infrastructure over five years.

Budapest - The Hungarian parliament voted on Tuesday to accept the government's proposed changes to the 2009 budget bill.

The latest budget proposal includes a cap on year-end bonus pension payments and other measures aimed at getting the shaky Hungarian economy onto a firmer footing.

The latest adjustments to the 2009 budget bill, which is expected to be voted through on December 15 were passed by 211 votes to 169.

As it announced on Monday, the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats supported the minority Hungarian Socialist Party's budget proposals, giving the government the necessary majority.

Budapest  - The Hungarian central bank lowered its base rate from 11.5 per cent to 11 per cent in a surprise move Monday.

The bank also issued its latest quarterly inflation report Monday, which warned that Hungary was set to enter a recession next year.

The Hungarian National Bank (MNB), which had in August predicted a 2.6-per-cent growth in GDP in 2009, said that it now expected the economy to shrink by 1.7 per cent to
2 per cent.

The central bank forecast a relatively brief recession, but warned that recovery would be very slow because of the widening economic crisis in countries that form Hungary's main export markets.

Budapest - The Hungarian central bank lowered its base rate from 11.5 per cent to 11 per cent in a surprise move Monday.

Hungarian National Bank (MNB) head Andras Simor, speaking shortly after the decision, said members of the rate-setting monetary council had three choices: maintain the existing rate, or reduce it by 50, or by 100 basis points. The overwhelming majority supported the 50 b. p. lowering.

"A reduction of more than 50 basis points would have posed a significant risk to the financial system and the Hungarian economy under the present conditions," said Simor.

Budapest - The leader of the most vocal Hungarian extreme right party denied on Friday that his organisation had anything to do with a grenade attack that killed a Roma couple in southern Hungary on Tuesday.

Gabor Vona, speaking in front of Budapest's police headquarters, said that a campaign was being waged by politicians and the press to link the atrocity to the far right in Hungary.

Budapest - Hungary, one of Europe's hardest-hit nations in the global financial crisis, could begin talks aimed at adopting the euro as early as 2009, Finance Minister Janos Veres said Thursday.

Veres said he was envisaging negotiations for Hungary to join Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism, known as ERM-II. Nations have to meet ERM's currency stability rules for at least two years before being considered for eurozone membership.