Hungary Fidesz may merge finance, econ ministries

BUDAPEST, April 20 (Reuters) - Hungary's election-winning party plans to merge the finance portfolio into a beefed-up economy ministry under a new government, daily Nepszabadsag reported on Tuesday.

The paper said, without naming its sources, that the Fidesz party would strip the finance ministry of most of its current functions, turning it into little more than a budget oversight office under a revamped economy ministry, led by economist Gyorgy Matolcsy.

The paper named Gyorgy Naszvadi, finance ministry state secretary under a previous Fidesz government, as the likely head of the new ministry.

The centre-right Fidesz ousted the ruling Socialists after eight years in power at elections on April 11 and has a good chance of winning a two-thirds legislative majority in a runoff vote this Sunday, which would enable it to pass extensive state reforms.

For more on Hungary's election, see

Fidesz parliamentary group leader Tibor Navracsics told public television m1 in an interview on Tuesday that merging the finance and economy portfolios was one of the options being considered by Fidesz but no final decision had been made yet.

'There is indeed (an option) with an economic top ministry and in this, similar to the French or the British solution, finance policy would become part of the responsibilities of the economy ministry,' Navracsics said.

He did not comment on the names cited in the newspaper report.

Matolcsy, the top economic strategist at Fidesz, told Reuters in an interview last month that Hungary should negotiate a precautionary deal with international lenders and launch tax reforms in 2011 to boost economic growth.

Fidesz will inherit the task of steering Hungary's economy out of its worst downturn in nearly two decades but will have little room for manoeuvre due to budget constraints imposed by the IMF and the EU, who saved it from collapse in 2008.

Hungary's next prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said Fidesz wanted to cut taxes, clamp down on corruption and eradicate bureaucracy to boost the country's competitiveness.

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by John Stonestreet) Keywords: HUNGARY ELECTION/MINISTRY ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.