Hungary industrial output climbs 11.1 pc, trade surplus reaches EUR 601 m in August

Budapest, October 7 (MTI) – Hungary’s industrial output rose by an annual 11.1 percent in August, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a preliminary release on Friday. Hungary’s trade surplus came to 601 million euros in August, a first reading of data released by KSH shows.

In five out of the eight months of the year so far industrial output increased, in three months it declined. The jump in August was preceded by two months of falling output in July and June.

Adjusted for the number of working days — there were three more in the base period — output rose by 3.5 percent in August, KSH noted.

In January-August, output grew by an annual 2.3 percent.

Istvan Lepsenyi, state secretary at the economy ministry, told public television M1 that it was clear, based on the latest industrial output data, that the economy was picking up and it would continue to do so in the remaining months of the year.

He called the adjusted 3.5 percent August reading and data for the first eight months a “nice development”, adding that positive trends in western Europe suggested a positive forecast with vehicle sales again growing.

Analysts told MTI that they expected industrial output to continue strengthening in the remaining part of the year.

Gergely Suppán of Takarékbank said both relatively high industrial confidence indices and the significantly rising purchasing manager index suggest that industrial output growth should continue in the coming months, approaching 3 percent for the full year in 2016 and 5 percent in 2017.

Péter Virovácz of ING Bank forecast 4 percent output growth in 2016.

Gergely Urmossy of Erste Bank predicted average industrial output growth of 2-3 percent this year.

Hungary trade surplus reaches EUR 601 m in August

The surplus grew by 157 million euros from the same period a year earlier.

Exports rose by an annual 12.5 percent to 7.240 billion euros in August. Imports were up by 10.8 percent at 6.638 billion euros.

About 79 percent of exports went to other European Union member states and 77 percent of imports came from the EU.

In January-August, the trade surplus reached 6.646 billion euros, up 1.056 billion euros from the same period a year earlier. Exports rose by 3.0 percent to 60.942 billion euros and imports were up by 1.4 percent to 54.296 billion euros.

Source: MTI