Hungary has unveiled plans to replace all of its banknotes by 2018, a move that hasn’t been carried out for 10 years. The immediate reason, said government officials, was to protect against fraud and counterfeits, but the lesson most analysts are taking from the decision is that Hungary has no intention of joining the eurozone before 2020. This would come as little surprise, given that the prime minister assured Hungarians last year that waiting another decade for euro adoption would not harm the country, saying its GDP should be allowed to reach Western European levels before letting go of the forint.
