Hungary trade surplus reaches EUR 1.07 bn in June

Hungary had a 1.07 billion euro trade surplus in June 2018, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Thursday.

The surplus was up by 119 million euros from the same month a year earlier.

Exports rose by an annual 8.9 percent to 9.573 billion euros. Imports were up by 8.4 percent at 8.502 billion euros.

About 81 percent of exports and 77 percent of imports were traded with other European Union member states.

For January-June, exports were up by 4.9 percent annually at 53.388 billion euros and imports rose by 6.3 percent to 49.098 billion euros.

The trade surplus in the first half of the year was 4.290 billion euros, down by 432 million euros from the same period last year.

KSH will publish a second reading of the June data on August 31.

Gergely Suppán of Takarékbank said trade surplus in June was significantly higher than expected. For the year the annual surplus could still shrink by 600 million euros to 7.48 billion euros, somewhat slowing down GDP growth.

The effect could be still less than in 2017 when the trade surplus narrowed by 1.6 billion euros, he said.

K+H Bank chief analyst Dávid Németh said although export growth surpassed import growth in June this could be temporary as growing household consumption, investments and import purchases needed for exports are all pushing import growth higher.

Source: MTI