UPDATE 1-Hungary borrowed 1 bln euros from Chinese banks in April, media reports

Hungary borrowed 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from Chinese banks in April, financial news website portfolio.hu reported on Thursday, citing data from government debt agency AKK. It said the three-year floating-rate loan would finance high-tech investments, transport infrastructure and energy-related expenditure.

Hungary borrowed 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from Chinese banks in April, financial news website portfolio.hu reported on Thursday, citing data from government debt agency AKK.

It said the three-year floating-rate loan would finance high-tech investments, transport infrastructure and energy-related expenditure. A spokesman for debt agency AKK did not immediately reply to emailed questions for comment on the loan which Portfolio said came from China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Hungarian branch of Bank of China Limited.

Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary has become an important trade and investment partner for China, in contrast with some other European Union nations that are exploring becoming less dependent on the world's second-largest economy. Chinese President Xi Jinping

met Orban during his first European tour in five years in May and said China and Hungary would embark on a "golden voyage" in bilateral relations.

Portfolio said the cost of borrowing or repayment terms of the Chinese loan were unclear adding, however, that the loan pushed the share of foreign currency loans within Hungary's overall loan stock to near a recently-increased 30% threshold. In April Hungary announced it would

postpone investments worth nearly $2 billion as part of a drive to cut the

budget deficit to a recently-increased 4.5% of GDP target amid a tepid economic recovery.

While Hungary has made some progress towards unlocking EU money to modernise its economy, billions of euros worth of funding remain suspended over rule-of-law concerns. Orban, in power since 2010, has also

roiled EU allies with a self-styled Ukraine "peace mission" that included talks with Donald Trump and the leaders of Russia and China without EU backing. ($1 = 0.9223 euros)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)