ORBAN STICKS A FACEBOOK FINGER UP TO THE IMF!

September 8, 2012

Well, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, has certainly made a statement by "defriending" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) form his Facebook profile. Whatever next via Facebook! Papal excommunications, declarations of war... Who knows? Perhaps even the occasional coup d' etat courtesy of Facebook: Desi Bouterse of Suriname had after all managed a telephone coup in 1990. "Hey, Mr Cameron, you're out! I'm the new Prime Minister. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause."

Mr Orban had his reasons. The list of conditions Hungary would have had to meet in order to qualify for a proposed IMF loan, he said, "contains everything that is not in Hungary's interests". These prerequisites included mandatory cuts in public sector jobs and pensions and the removal of a bank tax. Despite Mr Orban's point, however, sticking your finger up to the potential offer of 15 billion euro loan, may not be the cleverest political move. A simple: "Maybe later" would have left him with all his options opened.

There was no official response on the IMF website today. Sometimes it's best to just keep quiet.