Our deficits – Academic inaugural address by an ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

The Hungarian society has been recently forced to face the consequences of the different tensions that have accumulated in the country. Despite the extremely disadvantageous starting position that Hungary occupied at the time of the political turnaround – both by international and regional comparison – Hungary managed to achieve more favourable transitional and development performances by the millennium than the other members of the former Eastern bloc. Hungary was especially successful at establishing the legal and institutional frameworks of the market economy, at integrating into the world economy, and at building external economic relations. This resulted in a successful catch-up process and a relative edge in Europe and in the region.