Hungary trade surplus EUR 908 m in November

Budapest, January 9 (MTI) – Hungary had a 908 million euro trade surplus in November, up by 130 million euros from a year earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Monday.

Exports rose by 5.8 percent to 8.583 billion euros and imports were up by 4.6 percent at 7.675 billion euros.

The trade surplus came to 9.452 billion euros for January-November. Exports rose by 2.7 percent to 85.983 billion euros during the period. Imports increased by 1.0 percent to 76.531 billion euros.

KSH will publish detailed November foreign trade data on February 2.

Analyst Péter Virovácz of ING Bank said that although detailed data are not available, the trade surplus in the first 11 months of last year had already surpassed that of 2015, meaning foreign trade could have supported economic growth more strongly in 2016 than before.

Gergely Suppán of Takarékbank said he expected export growth to continue in the coming months as weaker industrial performance should be temporary and European business confidence indicators also point to expansion. He said the full-year trade surplus could come close to 10 billion euros in 2016, predicting a trade surplus of around 8.7 billion euros for 2017.

Source: MTI