The Hungarian government welcomed the European Commission's (EC) latest country report, noting the recognition of progresses made in the area of structural reforms, official sources said here on Friday.

"The European Commission published its country report on Hungary on Wednesday. There's a lot of good news in this report and it comes at a time, admittedly, when there has not been a lot of positive back and forth between the EC and Hungary," said Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary's secretary of state for international communications.

He was hinting at the current anti-immigration campaign launched by the Hungarian government that elicited anger from European Union officials in Brussels.

A few months before the European Parliament elections, the Hungarian government launched a new nationwide anti-immigration media campaign on Feb. 20 in which it accuses Hungarian-born American billionaire George Soros and EC chief Jean-Claude Juncker of supporting illegal migration. The campaign drew strong criticism from Brussels.

According to the EC report, "The Hungarian economy is enjoying a strong cyclical upswing."

Kovacs commented that: "Compare this to where the country was pre-2010. Hungary had to get an emergency bailout from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Growth had gone deep into negative territory. Unemployment surged above 10 percent. The budget deficit far exceeded the Maastricht limit of 2 percent and debt was spiraling negative."

"Today, the labor force is growing and nearly everyone who wants to work has a job. We've come so far," Kovacs said.

The EC report noted progress in certain areas, such as: "The complexity of the tax system has been reduced as several small taxes were abolished or merged. The number of participants in the public work scheme has decreased further and the tax burden on employees after retirement has been cut, helping unlock labour reserves."

According to the report, progress has been limited on the public procurement framework, which "improved as incentives were created to discourage less transparent tendering procedures. Some measures have been introduced to prevent the high concentration of disadvantaged pupils, in particular Roma pupils, in certain schools, with limited impact. The adequacy of social assistance improved modestly as some transfers were increased."

Meanwhile, "No measures have been put forward to reinforce the anti-corruption framework and strengthen prosecutorial efforts. The regulatory environment in services has not improved. The quality and transparency of decision making and social dialogue has not advanced," the report said.