Is the southern opening the key to African markets?
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According to fuhu.hu, the southern opening seems to be working, even if Africa’s share in the total Hungarian trade is small and it is characterised by significant fluctuations. Two Hungarian institutions, the Hungarian National Trading House and the Hungarian Trade & Cultural Centre set the goal to improve our African trade.
The import mostly features processed goods and food, while the export seems to be dominated by engineering products.
The trade with Africa is characterised by a great export surplus, while the continent’s share in the whole trade is still small (an import worth 16.5 thousand billion forints [~ EUR 52 billion] and an export worth 18 thousand billion [~EUR 57 billion] between January and July).
Besides the countries that play an important role in traditional fields and tourism, there are several states that are not in the limelight in Hungary. Out of the „dark” countries, Hungarian diplomacy (and trade) is present in five. For that matter, this is the part of the continent everyone wants to trade with; where China spends a lot of money on different investments.
The last time South Africa was featured in Hungarian news was when a local company’s interest, the New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) Rockcastle bought the Arena Plaza mall.
The 84 billion forint (~EUR 270m) purchase price is obviously not included in the statistics, which recorded an import worth 7.7 billion (~EUR 24m) and an export worth 61 billion (~EUR 196m) last year. Until this July, the import grew to its sesquialter, while the export showed a slight fallback.
The changing of the traffic is significant, even though based on the current evaluation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the southernmost African country’s competitiveness declined drastically due to the eroded institutions and the financial system. Moreover, bad public safety, corruption, political instability and the very high unemployment rate still count as great issues. The South African economy is currently improving, but the expectations are not quite reassuring.