After the forint fell to a historic low against the euro, the central bank said it would offer collateralized loans at a fixed rate of 0.9 percent to help offset the economic fallout of the coronavirus. These loans would be granted to domestic open-ended investment funds in an effort to boost government securities as well as the real estate market, the bank said in a statement. The Hungarian forint fell to HUF 369.63 to the euro on Wednesday. The currency’s rapid decline coincided with the release of figures suggesting that industrial output was falling even faster than during the financial crisis from a decade ago. But there are also concerns over the methods the government are employing to handle the coronavirus healt crisis, with critics calling them increasingly autocratic.
