Hungary's new austerity measures make the government's 2006 and 2007 budget deficit targets realistic, the central bank's chief economist told the press yesterday. "There is a realistic chance now for the 5% deficit in 2007", Mr Hamecz told Reuters yesterday, adding that 8% target for 2006 is also feasible. He also announced that the forint's weakness in recent days was not enough to guide rate policy. Still, recent poll of Portfolio.hu shows that macro analysts expect 50bps rate hike from the current 6.0% by the end of the year.