Hungary Q4 GDP growth accelerates to 4.4 per cent

Hungary’s fourth-quarter GDP growth in 2017 was an annual 4.4 percent, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Wednesday.

The pace of growth accelerated from 3.9 percent in Q3 2017.

Annual growth in Q4 2016 was just 1.9 percent.

Market-based services and the construction sector contributed the most to growth in the last quarter of 2017, KSH said.

Adjusted for calendar year effects, GDP growth reached an annual 4.8 percent in Q4, up from 4.1 percent in Q3.

Reconciled data, adjusted for seasonal and calendar year effects, show GDP climbed by 4.8 percent year on year in Q4, up from a 4.2 percent expansion in Q3.

For the whole of 2017 GDP grew by an unadjusted 4.0 percent year on year compared with 2.2 percent growth in 2016. Annual growth adjusted for seasonal and calendar year effects was at 4.2 percent last year.

Hungary’s government targets an unadjusted GDP growth of 4.1 percent for 2017.

Commenting on the data, Economy Minister Mihály Varga noted the quickening pace of growth of the Hungarian economy, which he attributed to the broad wage agreement reached by the government, employers and unions in late 2016. This included payroll tax cuts, he told public news channel M1.

He said the growth path had been stable in the full year of 2017, adding this was last year’s greatest achievement.

Economic growth was driven by the pharmaceutical and electronics sectors and construction, Varga said.

Within the Visegrad Group, Hungary reported the fastest growth rate during the period of October-December last year, he said. Compared with the rest of the EU, the Hungarian economy’s growth rate has been well above the bloc’s average, Varga said.

Source: MTI