·The National Bank of Hungary (NB) devalued the forint by 9 percent as of March 13, and promised further monthly devaluations of 1.9 percent in May and June, and of 1.3 percent in July; a general import duty surcharge of 8 percent came into effect on March 20 and will remain in place until mid-1997. (The import duty surcharge alone will generate an extra 56 billion forints in revenue, with a further 25 billion forints coming from higher import prices and exchange rates.) Hungarian companies will no longer be obliged to exchange their hard-currency export revenues for forints, although they will still have to repatriate their revenues to Hungary.

·The family allowance will no longer be universal and automatic. But automatic eligibility will be maintained for families with three children or more and for those with a net per capita monthly income of less than 15,000 forints. Others will be means and assets tested. Child-care assistance is to be reduced to cover only those entitled to the family allowance. From now on, employers, rather than the social security organizations, will have to fund sick pay for the first 20 days. Beginning this fall, tuition fees will be introduced at universities and colleges.

·Wages are to be held down in government administration and state-owned companies. (The gross average monthly wage in 1994 was 33,000 forints, and despite the expected 28 percent inflation rate, will not rise above 40,000 forints this year, meaning an average real wage cut of 10 percent.) Government employment, including such public employees as teachers, and doctors will be reduced. Rules on severance payments and bonuses will be tightened. It is likely that the central budget contribution to local governments next year will be reduced by 20 percent. Fifty percent of surplus revenues accrued from the basic activities of public sector institutions will be allocated to the central budget. Most extrabudgetary funds will be abolished, support for specific projects will come from the central budget instead of from state funds. A unified financing system will be set up as of January 1, 1996, to be managed by the Treasury.