From the 2026 budget audit
106 milliárd Ft to subsidise export-credit interest rates.
The Eximbank interest equalisation delivers an export subsidy as an administered interest rate, severing export credit's cost from the cost of capital.
Roughly 26,500 Ft per taxpayer per year — 106 milliárd Ft total, paid as a rate subsidy on export-credit contracts written by a state financial institution.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: exporters who access credit at a below-market rate and the export revenues they generate. The unseen: every firm in the domestic economy competing for capital without a state subsidy, facing a marginally higher effective cost of borrowing as a result.
Objection
"Export credit support is standard international practice — every competitor country subsidises its exporters in some form."
Answer
That other states misprice credit does not make the mispricing less costly at home. An administered rate severs the loan's cost from the cost of capital; where credit is mispriced, capital misallocates. Close to new commitments, honour contracted credit lines, run the subsidy off over three years as the existing book matures.
Share if you think export success should rest on genuine competitive advantage, not on subsidised interest rates.
The analyst's verdict
Eximbank interest equalisation
Rationale
The line subsidises the interest rate on export credit channelled through Eximbank. It is an export subsidy delivered as an administered interest rate — the same mispriced-credit mechanism as the household loan schemes, applied to exporters. Phase-Out (3 years) flagged, with substantive treatment in the state-financial-institutions chapter; contracted credit lines run off, no new subsidised commitments.
Transition mechanism
Phase-Out (3 years); contracted credit lines run off, no new subsidised commitments. Substantive treatment in the state-financial-institutions chapter.
Affected groups
Exporters who rely on subsidised Eximbank credit (who lose access to below-market credit for new transactions); existing contracted borrowers (protected by credit-line run-off); general taxpayers who fund the interest-rate subsidy.
Free Society Institute
Support independent analysis
Our research is free, open, and unsponsored. If you find it valuable, help us keep it that way.