Budapest  - The German engineering firm Bosch announced on Thursday that it is cutting 250 jobs at its largest Hungarian plant due to falling orders.

"Since the end of last year, Bosch's largest Hungarian automotive plant has been faced with ever smaller orders from its partners as a result of the crisis in the automotive industry that began last year," Zsuzsanna Kukaj, spokeswoman for Bosch Hungary, told the local news agency MTI

The job cuts will take effect in February. The number of shifts at the plant will be cut from four to three, Kukaj added.

Budapest - Hungary has lifted its restrictions on domestic gas use, Energy Minister Csaba Molnar said on Thursday, despite its main supply route staying closed in the ongoing row between Ukraine and Russia over pricing.

Molnar also confirmed that the Hungarian energy company MOL is ready to deliver 1 to 1.5 million cubic metres of gas to Slovakia, if needed.

In addition, Hungary has offered to supply electricity to its northern neighbour, the minister said.

Budapest - Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said on Wednesday that the Hungarian economy could shrink by 2 to 3 per cent this year, a far deeper recession than recent government predictions suggested.

"This year, the economy could show negative growth of minus 2 to 3 per cent, rather than the minus 0.9 per cent entered in the 2009 budget," Gyurcsany said on a breakfast news show on state-owned Hungarian television.

Budapest - The Hungarian Finance Minister Janos Veres said on Tuesday that there was no real justification for a recent tumble in the value of the Hungarian forint.

"The weakening of the forint was fundamentally influenced by misinformation over the past few days," Veres said at a meeting with the international press.

The forint was trading at a mid-market rate of 284 to the euro as the minister spoke on Tuesday morning, down from 266 on Friday.

Budapest  - The mayor of Budapest on Sunday issued the capital's first full-scale smog alert since new legislation was passed in December, triggering an automatic ban for almost half of all private vehicles.

As the smog alert was issued on an odd date, only vehicles with odd-numbered registration plates were permitted on the roads of the Hungarian capital on Sunday.

"Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany asks that ministries and state authorities adhere strictly to the smog alert ordinances," said government spokesman David Daroczi.

"Police are stopping traffic at roads into the capital and major junctions in order to warn drivers," said police spokeswoman Eva Tafferner.

Budapest - Hungary is to supply natural gas to Bosnia- Herzegovina and Croatia, Energy Minister Csaba Molnar said Saturday.

The Hungarian energy company MOL had joined forces with the German E. ON Ruhrgas in response to the "extremely serious gas crisis that has developed in the Balkans," he told reporters.

MOL and E. ON were jointly supplying 4 to 4.5 million cubic metres of gas to Serbia and 1 to 1.5 million cubic metres to Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Molnar added that 1 million cubic metres of gas from Hungarian and German sources was being pumped into Croatia.