in 1920/21 the hungarian budget predicted expenditures twice as high as the estimated revenue for the year. at the same time the country was facing unrestrained inflation so that by december 1920 the minister of finance, lóránt hegedüs, drafted a financial program striving for general deflation, tax reforms, and reduced budget expenditures. the plan failed for various reasons, including strong political opposition and the reparation payments which made it difficult to create a balanced budget for the country. in 1922, the government, which until that time had done nothing more than establish some export embargoes, finally intervened in an attempt to curtail the rapidly rising inflation. foreign-exchange regulation was established mainly on imported goods, though these controls were only temporary. by the second half of the 1920s state intervention decreased significantly to allow a more liberal economic policy.