Finance Minister expects 6.0-6.5 percent 2021 GDP growth

Early in November, the Finance Ministry lowered its projection for GDP growth this year to 6.8 percent.

Hungarian growth slowed to an annual 6.1 percent in the third quarter. In the Q1-Q3 period, growth was 7.1 percent.

Varga told a general meeting of construction industry association EVOSZ on Thursday that Hungary’s construction sector was likely to grow by 10 percent this year. An expanding order stock signals further growth in the future, too, he added.

He said the European Commission would owe Hungary 320-330 billion forints (EUR 872-900m) this year after sitting on the approval of Hungary’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) plan. Talks are under way and “hopefully will conclude soon”, he added.

EVOSZ chairman Laszlo Koji said the performance of the construction industry returned to pre-crisis levels in September. This year, the sector’s output is expected to reach 5,000 billion forints, he added.