A pleasant surprise: the new GDP data for Hungary are encouraging

The gross domestic product, GDP, indicator performed better than expected in the first quarter of 2024. Here is the latest KSH report.

Hungary’s GDP climbed 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2024, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a second reading of data on Tuesday.

Adjusted for calendar year effects, GDP rose by an annual 1.7 percent in Q1.

Quarter on quarter, GDP was up by 0.8 percent, adjusted for seasonal and calendar year effects.

Overall industrial performance constricted by 4.2 percent year-on-year, and production industries fell by 4.8 percent. The value-added of the construction sector rose by 3 percent compared with the same period last year, and that of agriculture edged up by 0.4 percent.

The gross value added of services increased by 2.7% in total. The highest increase (9.8%) occurred in information and communication. The value added of arts, recreation and other service activities was up by 7.3%, that of education by 6.6% and the value added of accommodation and food service activities by 5.2%. The value added of real estate activities grew by 5.0% and that of transportation and storage by 4.2%. The value added of professional, scientific, technical and administrative activities rose by 2.7%, that of financial and insurance activities by 1.3% and the value added of human health and social work activities by 0.4%. The performance of public administration diminished by 0.3% and that of wholesale and retail trade by 3.0%.

Positive contributors to the 1.1% increase in gross domestic product in the 1st quarter of 2024 were services (1.7 percentage points), the balance of taxes and subsidies on products (0.2 percentage point) and construction (0.1 percentage point). Agriculture did not affect the performance of the economy significantly, while industry lowered it by 0.9 percentage point. Within services, it was real estate activities that contributed the most (by 0.5 percentage point) to the growth of GDP.

In the 1st quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, according to seasonally and calendar adjusted and reconciled data:

The performance of the economy grew by 0.8%.
From the production approach, performance went up by 1.7% in services and by 1.1% in construction. Industry’s performance decreased by 0.1%, and agriculture’s by 10.2%.
From the expenditure approach, the volume of household final consumption expenditure stagnated, while that of social transfers in kind from the government rose by 0.4% and the volume of the government’s actual final consumption by 0.9% out of the components of actual final consumption. Gross fixed capital formation declined by 1.9%. In external trade, the volumes of exports and imports as a whole decreased (by 0.2% and 1.1%, respectively).