Hungary's booming wedding market doused by soaring inflation
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[March 27, 2023]
By Gergely Szakacs and Krisztina Fenyo
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Soaring inflation is taking the steam out of
Hungary's wedding market, supercharged in recent years by Prime Minister
Viktor Orban's lavish family support measures, with the number of
weddings plunging to a nine-year-low at the start of 2023.
Nationalist Orban, in power since 2010, has launched tax breaks, housing
support schemes and cheap loans worth some 5% of economic output per
year for newly weds to arrest Hungary's demographic decline, while
strongly opposing immigration.
The measures have fuelled a boom in recent years that has lifted Hungary
to the top of the European Union matrimony table at 6.9 weddings per
1,000 people in 2020 based on Eurostat figures, the latest comparable
statistics.
The impact was so strong that sociologists say Hungary was the only
country in the world where the number of weddings did not fall during
the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
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But the situation appears to be changing with Hungary now projected to
run the EU's highest average inflation rate at 16.4% this year amid
surging food, power and services prices, driving up the cost of nuptials
and eroding the value of Orban's support measures.
In January the number of weddings recorded in Hungary fell to 1,230,
preliminary data showed - the lowest number since January 2014.
Livia Murinko, a senior research fellow at the Hungarian Demographic
Research Institute, says high inflation has contributed to a fall in the
number of weddings after the boom years fuelled largely by all the
related government handouts.
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Wedding cakes are displayed during the
Central European Wedding Show in Budapest, Hungary, March 11, 2023.
REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
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"Nearly anyone who could potentially get married has already done
so," she said. "We did not think that this wedding boom would be so
strong and prolonged, but it will now probably return to
equilibrium."
Kinga and Sandor Urban-Szabo, who put off their wedding plans due to
COVID-19, say their budget for the event has now surged to nearly
four times what they were planning to spend in 2020, as the annual
inflation rate hit 25.4% - the highest in central Europe.
Others are scaling back their wedding plans or even scrapping
receptions altogether. Stunned by the costs, many couples do not
even respond to emailed quotes, service providers say.
Mihaly Toth, a master of wedding ceremonies, says the number of
couples planning to tie the knot is likely to fall from last year's
levels.
"Costs have skyrocketed," Toth said. "This obviously deters many
couples from arranging wedding feasts."
Timea Szabo, 23, and her fiance, who got engaged in 2020, were also
forced to forego a wedding reception due to the steep rise in costs,
with relatives tasked with the preparing the wedding dress and
taking photographs.
"We will just have a small family get-together and then go out with
some friends for the night," Szabo said.
(Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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