The European Commission has raised its projection for Hungary’s 2019 GDP growth to 4.6 percent from 4.4 percent.
As we revealed earlier today, the government’s official projection for GDP growth this year is 4 percent, but Mihály Varga, Minister of Finance, said a higher-than-expected first-half growth of 5.1 percent could lift full-year growth to 4.3-4.4 percent.
According to MTI, the EC left its forecast for next year’s GDP growth unchanged at 2.8 percent. It put GDP growth in 2021 at 2.8 percent.
In the autumn European Economic Forecast, the EC acknowledged that Hungary had managed to withstand the global slowdown thanks to a domestic construction boom and a revival of the automotive industry, but said support from these factors is “set to fade toward the end of 2019”.
The EC projects private consumption growth will slow from 4.9 percent in 2019 to 3.8 percent in 2020 and 3.4 percent in 2021. Household consumption is set to “slow gradually” as lower GDP growth limits labor demand and constrains further real income gains.