Economy of Hungary city competitiveness ranking by EIU, Budapest is ranked above Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Moscow and Johannesburg, among others. Hungary maintains its own currency, the Hungarian forint (HUF), although the economy fulfills the Maastricht criteria with the exception of public debt, but the ratio of public debt to GDP is significantly below the EU average at 75.3% in 2015. The Hungarian National Bank—founded in 1924, after the dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Empire—is currently focusing on price stability with an inflation target of 3%. In the age of feudalism the key economic factor was land. The new economic and social orders created private ownership
European Currency Unit accept the European Union legislation to that effect. However, for abundant caution, several foreign jurisdictions adopted legislation to ensure a smooth transition. Of particular importance, the U.S. states of Illinois and New York adopted legislation to ensure a large proportion of international financial contracts recognized the euro as the successor of the ECU. Although the acronym ECU is formed from English words, "écu" is also the name of an ancient French coin. That was one reason that a new name was devised for its successor currency, "euro", which was felt not to favour any single language. The currency's symbol, ₠