Polgári Szemle 2017. különszám [antikvár]

Civic Review, Vol. 13, Special Issue, 2017, 5-11, DOI: 10.24307/psz.2017.0301 Csaba Lentner Snapshots of Hungary: Balance, Growth and Dynamism Editor-in-ChieFs Foreword Journal of Economic Uterature (JEL) code: A2, Bl, GOl, NIO, PIO, P20 Keywords: Hungary, political economy, fiscal policy, monetary policy, society, Soviet period, crisis management, history of the economy The ultimate goal of economic policy is to create and sustain a society motivated towards economic conditions capable of development and of achieving surplus. The success of economic policy is accomplished in rising living standards and sustainable economic growth. However, permanent growth is based on and arises from financial equilibrium at the level of the central and local governments, companies and households, collectively strengthening one another. It is a feat of economic policy virtuosity if a country is able to maintain financial equilibrium and economic growth simultaneously. In the past few years Hungary has been characterized by such a phenomenal performance. Social welfare and its economic basis, the achievement of surplus and the proportionate distribution of the income and profit generated according to social needs and in a humane spirit, is the responsibility of the politicians in control of economic policy, "in exchange" for being an important source of political stability. This is because the primary criterion of creating a good economic policy is the formation of income conditions aligned to the needs of residents, citizens and families and the maintenance of a hopeful public sense of peace. In other words, the management system that is applied must be adjusted to the given country's economic and social conditions and demands. It is essential that economic policy should also follow international trends. It should also fit in with fashionable economic tendencies. However, this should not be