>>211928802Eh, yeah kind of true but if you look into it:
Slovakia is pretty similar. I think they are actually poorer as PPP but it is pretty marginal. In fact Bratislava is even more expensive than Budapest because the proximity of Vienna where half the city works. Slovakia is not really doing any better in any aspect imo.
Czechia has been richer than Hungary for centuries. They have the highest nominal GDP per capita in the V4 by far but their incomes are meh. The average wage for 2025 Q1 in Czechia was 46,924 CZK which would be 761 302 HUF. For comparison the average wage in March 25 in Hungary was 708 300 thousand HUF. In Euro its 1891 EUR vs 1759 EUR. But Czechia is also better in many aspects (social security, healthcare, railway in general, condition of buildings) but also more expensive, estate real estate.
Poland has the exact same GDP per capita in nominal terms but they have higher salaries. They also have a much much larger internal market, unlike other V4 countries basically no minorities that would lag behind, they had an influx of millions of Ukrainians. They also seems to have the most responsible and least corrupt government.
>>211928864Hungary had an absolute awful economic track record under the previous liberal government (2002-2010) and no one seemed to care. In fact it was so awful that after losing brutally in 2002 Orban got elected with a two third majority in 2010. Hungary almost got Greece'd during that period. The current government has been acting really retarded since 2020 too, in fact there are many similarities between the 2002-2010 liberal government that was catastrophic from an economic standpoint and the current one in the last 5 years.