Industrial output up 4.8 percent yr/yr

Unadjusted output was up 1.5 percent, slowing from 9.4 percent in May.

Output of the automotive industry in June, Hungary’s biggest manufacturing sector, grew by 2.9 percent year on year.

The detailed data show output of the computer, electronics and optical equipment segment increased by an annual 4.9 percent. Output of the food, drinks and tobacco segment increased by 9.3 percent.

Month on month, output in June rose by 0.6 percent based on seasonally and working day-adjusted data. In January-June, industrial output grew by an annual 5.1 percent.

Industrial sales rose by an annual 4.4 percent in June. Export sales increased by 2.7 percent and domestic sales by 7.1 percent.

In absolute terms, industrial sales were worth 5,827 billion forints, with exports accounting for 61 percent of the total.

After the release of data, the ministry of technology and industry noted that industrial output grew by 5.1 percent in the first half of the year. Compared with output in the same period of 2020, there was a 6.3 percent improvement, meaning that a new record level was reached on the back of sustained growth in the index since coronavirus came to the fore.

The performance, the ministry said in a statement, was largely thanks to government measures aimed at protecting the economy based on encouraging job-creating investments which have led to the establishment of new production capacities in Hungary.

Electrical equipment manufacture and the food industry fuelled the growth, while vehicle manufacturing — in the doledrums throughout Europe — has seen nascent growth in Hungary, the statement added.

The data are robust in international comparison, exceeding the EU average and countries of the region, the ministry said.

Output “has not yet seen a decline similar to that which emerged due to the coronavirus, despite the war and supply disruptions,” Zsolt Kutnyanszky, the state secretary for industry and the labour market, wrote. Hungary is turning into a key base for battery manufacturing, and is investing in 5G, artificial intelligence and the hydrogen economy, he added.

He warned, however, that “various global challenges and uncertainties” warranted caution as regards the future outlook.