Bad news came from the Hungarian economy again: industry in trouble
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Output of Hungary’s industrial sector fell 7.2pc in September, a first reading of data released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Wednesday shows. Meanwhile, retail sales in Hungary rose 1.7pc year-on-year in September, data released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Thursday show
Hungarian economy overdependent on the German economy
Adjusted for the number of workdays, output was down 5.4pc. Output of most manufacturing branches declined in September, KSH said. Among the biggest, output of the automotive, electrical equipment, and computer, electronics and optical equipment segments decreased, but output of the food, beverage and tobacco segment increased, it added.
In a month-on-month comparison, output slipped 0.7pc, on a seasonally- and workday-adjusted basis. For the period January-September, industrial output declined 4.3pc year-on-year. KSH will release detailed data on output of industrial sector branches on November 13.
In a statement issued after the release of the data, the National Economy Ministry said the sluggish external economy, especially Germany’s troubled industrial sector, and weak external demand continued to weigh on Hungary’s industrial output. It pointed to growth in output of the food industry as a positive.
Hungary’s overdependence on the German economy shows the government’s policy of economic neutrality is the right solution, the ministry said. Hungary needs to strengthen further its economic ties with the East, where economies are growing at a much faster pace than in the West which is struggling with competitiveness problems, it added.
Local investments in the pipeline by CATL, BYD, BMW, SEMCORP and EcoPro can give new impetus to Hungary’s industrial sector, it said. Stimulus in the government’s New Economic Policy Action Plan is expected to boost consumption and investments, as well as industry, lifting GDP growth over 3pc in 2025.
Why not expand trade with the US, Mexico, Canada? Is there some Fidesz phobia about America and western democracies? Germany has been sluggish for two years now to be sure and its’ GDP growth is projected to be barely positive in 2025. Action needs to be taken. Part of the problem is that the negative effects of Brexit took hold not only in the UK but also on the EU side. In 2015 Putin acted to engineer a migration crisis in Syria with Russian participation in Bashar al-Assad’s murderous campaign in that country. The subsequent migration crisis in Europe and the UK caused a backlash among the UK public. Putin then pushed a disinformation campaign in the UK prior to the Brexit vote helping to split off the UK from Europe. We now have a weaker UK and a weaker EU facing a Russian military campaign against Europe with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia works night and day to weaken Europe and the western world. For example when the recent hurricane hit North Carolina, Russia put out disinformation on-line about relief effforts. and during the US election Russia was the source of a fake “Haitian voters” conspiracy theory. Putin works to sow chaos and division among us. Russia’s method is that if you build a beautiful house rather than it build a better house to compete with you it will try to burn your house down.