Zsolt Darvas
Zsolt Darvas is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel. He specialises in macroeconomics, European Union governance and inequality.
He covers policy-related issues such as fiscal and monetary policies, the EU budget, EU enlargement, income and wealth inequality, and inclusive growth. He continues to pursue some projects in international finance.
He speaks English and Hungarian.
He is also a part-time Senior Research Fellow at the Corvinus University of Budapest. Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Research Advisor at the Argenta Financial Research Group in Budapest. Before that, he worked at the research unit of the Central Bank of Hungary where he served as Deputy Head. Zsolt holds a PhD in Economics from Corvinus University.
Personal website: https://www.darvas.online/
Disclosure of interests
Featured work
Global trade tracker
This dataset monitors goods-trade developments among major economies in the wake of the 2025 US tariff hikes
Real effective exchange rates for 178 countries
Using alternative data sources for exchange rates and consumer prices, we calculate REER for 177 countries monthly and 178 countries annually
Russian foreign trade tracker
Tracking Russian trade using data from the EU, China, the US, South Korea, Japan, India, the UK, Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil and Kazakhstan
What future for the Hungarian economy?
Financing the EU budget: an assessment of five proposals for new resources
Four of five new European Union budget ‘own resources’ proposed by the European Commission should go ahead with changes; the fifth should be scrapped
The European Union’s external imbalances: past, future and policy
Europe’s rising external surplus now rivals China’s, reflecting weak investment and growing surpluses, pointing to a need for pro-investment reforms
Hungary’s future
How Hungary’s historic election changes the EU and the economic outlook
Hungary’s new beginning – under tight fiscal constraints
The long-awaited change of government gives Hungary an opportunity to tackle tough economic and social challenges while re-aligning with Europe
To what extent should regional EU funding be conditional on national reforms?
National plans, regional voices: cohesion policy in the next European Union budget
NRPPs could raise the EU added value of the 2028–34 budget, but reform conditions and decision-making must better reflect regional needs
The link between the European Semester and the next EU budget
Can advanced economies avoid debt distress?
European and Chinese exports kept growing despite the 2025 Trump trade shock
Diversification has kept global trade strong, despite Trump’s tariffs and accelerated US-China decoupling
Unequal wealth: Policy implications for the European Union
Europe’s looming budget fight
The EU Parliament’s Johan Van Overtveldt and Bruegel's Zsolt Darvas lay out the two years of tough talks ahead
Rules, discretion and market stabilisation in the euro area
What will it take to stabilise debt in advanced countries?
Debt can be stabilised across advanced economies yet many face sizeable fiscal adjustments and rising vulnerability to market shifts
Sovereign Debt and Fiscal Integration in the European Union
How has Europe’s gender wealth gap evolved, and why?
Gender wealth inequality in the European Union: a distributional perspective
Analysis of single women and men in Europe reveals persistent gender wealth gaps and differing patterns across countries
All work
Dataset
04 May 2026
Global trade tracker
This dataset monitors goods-trade developments among major economies in the wake of the 2025 US tariff hikes
Dataset
29 April 2026
Real effective exchange rates for 178 countries
Using alternative data sources for exchange rates and consumer prices, we calculate REER for 177 countries monthly and 178 countries annually
Dataset
23 April 2026
Russian foreign trade tracker
Tracking Russian trade using data from the EU, China, the US, South Korea, Japan, India, the UK, Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil and Kazakhstan
Newsletter
20 April 2026
Analysis
20 April 2026
Financing the EU budget: an assessment of five proposals for new resources
Four of five new European Union budget ‘own resources’ proposed by the European Commission should go ahead with changes; the fifth should be scrapped
Working paper
16 April 2026
The European Union’s external imbalances: past, future and policy
Europe’s rising external surplus now rivals China’s, reflecting weak investment and growing surpluses, pointing to a need for pro-investment reforms
Podcast
14 April 2026
Hungary’s future
How Hungary’s historic election changes the EU and the economic outlook
First Glance
13 April 2026
Hungary’s new beginning – under tight fiscal constraints
The long-awaited change of government gives Hungary an opportunity to tackle tough economic and social challenges while re-aligning with Europe
Event
28 April 2026
The new global imbalances: the launch of Paris Report 4
How to address global imbalances during geopolitical instability?
Newsletter
30 March 2026