History
The forint's name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. In Hungary, florentinus (later forint), also a gold-based currency, was used from 1325 under Charles Robert and several other countries followed its example.
Between 1868 and 1892 the forint was the name used in Hungarian for the currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, known in German as the Austro-Hungarian gulden or Austrian florin. It was subdivided into 100 krajczár (krajcár in modern Hungarian).
The forint was reintroduced on 1 August 1946, after the 1945-1946 hyperinflation of the pengő. The process was managed by the Hungarian Communist Party, which held the relevant ministry seats, and the forint's success was exploited for political gains, contributing to the 1948-49 communist take-over of state powers. The forint replaced the pengő at the rate of 1 forint = 4×1029 pengő. In fact, this was an imaginary exchange rate, since, with highest value note being 100 million B. pengő (1020 pengő), the whole amount of pengő in circulation had a value of less than one forint at this rate. Of more significance was the exchange rate to the adópengő of 1 forint = 200 million adópengő.
Historically the forint was subdivided into 100 fillér, although fillér have been rendered useless by inflation and have not been in circulation since 1996. The Hungarian abbreviation for forint is Ft, which is written after the number with a space between. The name fillér, the subdivision of all Hungarian currencies since 1925, comes from the German word Heller. The abbreviation for the fillér is f, written also after the number with a space in between.
After its 1946 introduction, the forint remained stable for several years, but started to lose its purchasing power as the state-socialist economic system lost its competitiveness during the 1970s and 1980s. After the democratic change of 1989-90, the forint saw yearly inflation figures of app. 35% for three years, but significant market economy reforms helped stabilize it. Since year 2000 the relatively high value of forint (especially compared to the falling US dollar and to some extent to the euro) handicaps the strongly export-oriented Hungarian industry against foreign competitors with lower valued currencies.
As part of Hungary's integration into the European Union and its euro currency, the forint may be replaced by the euro, depending on the economic situation.
Read more about this topic: Hungarian Forint
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