Hungary is a Central-European country, it is located in the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.  

The country's official name is Republic of Hungary, in Hungarian it is Magyar Köztársaság

After the fall of the Communist regime (October 23, 1989) Hungary was declared a parliamentary republic, and the first free elections were held on March 25 and on April 9, 1990. We have elections each 4 years, and since 1990, Hungary has experienced a government-change each 4 years. In 2006, this "habit" changed, and for the first time since 1990, the ruling coalition could win the elections again. Now the ruling coalition is formed by the socialists (MSZP) and the liberals (SZDSZ). The prime minister is Ferenc Gyurcsány, the president of Hungary is László Sólyom. 

Hungary became a member of the Visegrad Group in 1991, a member of the NATO in 1999, and a member of the European Union on May 1, 2004. 

The currency of Hungary is still the Forint, we are still not members of the Euro-zone. According to estimated plans, we can reach a proper level of economy to be able to join the Euro-zone not before 2012.  

The official language is Hungarian. 

Hungary's total area is 93,030 km², this is approximately the third of the so-called "big-Hungary" - Hungary has lost approximately 70% of its territory and 60% of its population after World War I, after signing the so-called Trianon Treaty, June 4, 1920.  

According to the data of the National Census 2001 the population of Hungary is 10,198,315.

Hungary's official currency is the FORINT. Its name derives from the city of Florence (Italy) - during the 13^th century the money minted here was called "fiorino d'oro". In Hungary it was used between 1325 and 1553, under the name "florentinus" (later forint).

It was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1857 and 1892, it was called Austrian florin, and it was subdivided into 100 "krajczár" On 1^st August, 1946 (after the 1945-1946 hyperinflation of the actual currency, the "pengõ") the forint was introduced again. The exchange rate was hard to imagine: 1 forint equaled 4 x 10²⁹ pengõ.  The forint was subdivided into 100 fillér, but because of inflation, the fillér became useless, so since 1999 it is not in circulation any more.  

There is now much debate about when Hungary can join the Euro-zone. Even if we are members of the European Union (since 1^st May, 2004) we still use our currency, because our economy is not fulfilling the so-called Maastrict-criteria. According to conservative estimations it seems to be realistic that we will use our forint instead of the Euro up until 2010-2012, so it is very likely that Hungary will be the last country to adopt the euro currency of the ten countries that joined the EU in 2004.  

The short form of forint is either Ft (it is used after the amount, like this: 3000 Ft), or simply 3000 HUF (HUF stands for HUngarian Forint).