According to data voluntarily supplied to the OECD, already in 2012 Hungary led OECD countries by number of enterprises owned by the state (SOE). And they were shy with the data they supplied…

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OECD, 2014 (with 2012 data)

Perusing the data of the OECD, Hungary was found to have the biggest number of SOEs, responsible for around 5% of state-dependent employment. The Hungarian state owned (by 2012!) no less than 371 companies partially or wholly, followed only by Poland (326 SOEs) and from a great distance Lithuania (137 SOEs) and Czechia (125 SOEs) among OECD countries.

Only three of those SOEs were listed with the government owning a non-trivial stake in them:

OECD, 2014

The data is shocking already, especially considering that the situation has worsened since. Our Party and Government (in this order) had, for instance, saved us from evil, profiteering private utility companies – a move that didn’t just make utility priced skyrocketing, but also chased many of these utility providers out of business, their assets returning to the state or well-connected cronies.

There are also issues with the authenticity of the data the ministry deigned to submit to the OECD. By the time we reach the country data set, for instance, majority- and minority-owned listed entities (3, as you can see above) are completely missing.

Now I don’t even believe the statistics I am reporting on.

The report, curiously, doesn’t bother to mention other relevant information, such as the share of SOEs in the whole economy – the question everyone begs to ask.

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Data source: OECD (2014), The Size and Sectoral Distribution of SOEs in OECD and Partner Countries, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264215610-en