GDP growth 0.4 percent in Q4, 4.6 percent in full year

KSH said “many” branches of the national economy contributed to the growth, but “mainly” industry and market services. Within industry, growth of the automotive and electrical systems segments was “significant”, as well as the expansion in the real estate and logistics segments within services, KSH added.

Adjusted for seasonal and calendar year effects, Q4 growth was 0.9 percent.

Quarter on quarter, adjusted GDP edged down 0.4 percent, falling for the second quarter in a row.

For the full year, GDP growth reached 4.6 percent.

KSH will publish a second, detailed reading of the data on March 2.

Commenting on the KSH data, Economic Development Minister Marton Nagy said that Hungary’s economy had performed “excellently” in an economic situation burdened by the war in Ukraine and Brussels’s sanctions opposed by Hungarians.

Hungary’s 4.6 percent full-year GDP growth put the country in the top third of European Union member states last year when its economy produced the 6th highest growth since the post-communist transformation, the minister said in a statement. Among the four Visegrad Group countries, Hungary is a close runner-up after Poland, he added.

The outstanding results are backed by continued international confidence in Hungary’s economy, a permanently high level of foreign investment, high employment, one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, strong wage growth and targeted government measures, Nagy said.

He reiterated the government’s target for GDP growth of “at least” 1.5 percent in 2023.