On March 14, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said it revised its outlook on the Republic of Hungary to Negative from stable owing to the weakening perspective for sustained consolidation of Hungary's public finances. At the same time, the 'BBB+' long-term and 'A-2' short-term sovereign credit ratings were affirmed. We believe that the increasing political incentives and pressure to dilute the fiscal reforms ahead of upcoming elections, coupled with the increasing cost of external borrowing, will interrupt the sovereign's progress in reducing its deficit from 2009 and will keep the debt burden rising. The decision of the government in late 2006 to commit to a comprehensive fiscal consolidation program represented a departure from Hungary's ignominious budgetary past. Since then,
