Effective family policies were discussed at the Krynica Economic Forum
Balázs Molnár, Vice-President of KINCS, participated in the program of the Krynica Economic Forum in southern Poland.
In a panel discussion entitled How do we reverse effective demographic trends with effective family policies?, besides Polish, Estonian and Hungarian leaders and experts, the Vice-President of the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations shared his thoughts, and the panel was moderated by Ágoston Sámuel Mráz, Director of the Nézőpont Institute. Balázs Molnár, Vice-President of the Maria Kopp Institute, presented the cornerstones of the Hungarian family policy shift. He outlined the demographic results of the last nearly decade, without which 88,000 fewer children would have been born in our country. He shared with the audience the outstanding application results of the first months of the Family Protection Action Plan, which confirmed the results of the Maria Kopp Institute's surveys on the adoption of the Action Plan.
In the panel entitled Can the family be the driving force of the economic system?, the relationship between family and economy were discussed, with the contributions of Marek Kosny, Professor of Wroclaw University of Economics, Paul H. Dembinski, Director of the Economic Observatory at the University of Fribourg, Plinio Limata, researcher at LUMSA University in Rome, and Balázs Molnár, Vice-President of the Maria Kopp Institute. The panel was moderated by Nicola Speranza, Secretary General of the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations.
Balázs Molnár described the economic effects of Hungarian family policy measures. The Hungarian government now spends 4.9% of its GDP on family policy, which is twice the OECD average. The flagship of family policy, the family tax relief, left families with EUR 750 million, which, coupled with significant bar growth, contributed significantly to domestic consumption growth, which has become an important driver of the highest quarterly GDP growth in EU Member States. Thanks to the CSOK programme, 100,000 state-of-the-art, energy-efficient homes have been built, while with the large family car rebate available from July 1, 2019, the purchase of more than 12,000 new, environmentally friendly cars have already been initiated.
