In broad terms, there is nothing to upset the markets in the budget announced today by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister. After all the turmoil of recent days prompted by Orban’s officials making clumsy references to the Greek crisis, the main point in the prime minister’s speech is the pledge to stick to the 3.8 per cent budget deficit target agreed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Assuming there are no tricks behind the numbers, everything else is secondary.

That said, there are some controversial twists. Orban promised to go ahead with a populist bank profits tax designed to squeeze 200bn forints (around €700m) from a sector that is currently paying 13bn forints in ways yet to be discussed with bank executives. And there will be a formal ban on foreign exchange mortgages, a measure that may be easier to launch than to implement.

Investors weren’t sure they liked what they saw – in volatile trading the forint rose 1.2 per cent on the day to 283.10 against the euro, but the Budapest stock market fell 1.4 per cent.

Investors seem to have accepted, at least for the moment, that Hungary is not the next Greece, even if certain Hungarian officials last week spread the word that it might be. After heavy falls in recent days, the forint rose 0.3 per cent against the euro to 285.75 today, up from one-year lows.

But a lot now hangs on the economic plans Viktor Orban, the prime minister, is due to announce very soon. Analysts warn that while Hungary is not in immediate economic danger, the government will have to tread very carefully – far more carefully than it has done over the past week.