Fraternal assistance (1989)

From the February 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard

The London International Stock Exchange is to assist the development of a stock exchange in Hungary. The agreement was signed in Budapest on December 12 by Mr J. Knight, the managing director of the London Stock Exchange In an interview he said that a stock exchange in Hungary would encourage foreign investors as they regarded an exchange as a means of gathering information on the financial and economic standing of Hungarian enterprises.

First, however, several private enterprises would have to emerge and operate profitably. He called attention to the need for reliable statistics. He added that the exclusivity or predominance of state ownership in Hungary did not contradict the existence of a stock exchange. In recent decades socialist governments in several Western countries had nationalised mines and steelworks and issued shares and bonds on the exchange.

Hungarian Radio. December 13 (BBC Monitoring)