„The government mandated the transfer of mandatory pension-fund assets into the state pension system late last year, quasi-nationalizing the third pillar of the pension system as part of its much-debated unorthodox set of measures to deal with slower economic growth and other effects of the global crisis. In the third quarter of 2011, household holdings of cash, forint deposits and quoted shares increased significantly, while other assets fell sharply because of the disbursement of real returns related to opt-outs from private pension funds.
In terms of household liabilities, a decrease in foreign-currency loans exceeded the increase in forint borrowing, while other liabilities fell significantly, the bank said. It attributed the decrease to real yield payments from the nationalization of private pension funds.
Hungarian households are net savers in part because of revisions to the personal income tax system. The majority of households used increased additional funds to accumulate savings or pay off debts, as retail lending remains in the doldrums. The government introduced a measure allowing households indebted in foreign currencies to pay off mortgages at a beneficial rate and by converting them to forint-based alternatives to eliminate exchange-rate fluctuation. The central bank estimates that 20% of foreign-currency mortgages with a value of approximately one trillion forints will be paid off under the program.”