Hungary PM urges banks to lend more to boost growth

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday urged banks to lend more to the private sector to boost economic growth as a central bank programme to finance companies could not be sustained indefinitely. "In order to keep economic growth above 3 percent in Hungary, which is our objective, we would need 7 to 8 percent private sector credit growth per year," Orban told a business forum. He said banks should lend more as their tax levels are cut next year under a deal with Austrian Erste Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to boost credit supply to companies. (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs)