Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that despite all global hardships, 2023 brought “all-time records” in Hungary’s foreign trade.
“Compared with 2009, Hungarian exports have tripled by today,” the foreign minister said at the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event on Tuesday, adding that very few countries had managed such a feat. In 2023, exports totalled 150 billion euros, 4.5% up from the previous year, while the foreign trade surplus was also at a record high, he said. The ratio of exports to GDP rose to around 85% by 2023, he added. Also, foreign direct investment agreements were signed in unprecedented abundance, he added. FDI, he said, was “fully diversified," with the highest amounts in the past four years coming from South Korea and China, reflecting the success of the government’s strategy of opening up to the East. The 3,480 billion foreign trade surplus essentially “made up for the losses” due to sky-high inflation and energy prices in 2022, Szijjártó said. A record 6.5 billion euros in investments in 2022 doubled last year, he said, adding that over 80% of the 13 billion euro total was tied to Eastern businesses. “This is such a high number that we cannot expect another record for a while,” he said. German and American companies have the highest number of investments in the country, he noted. “It is highly important that we maintain a geographical balance in terms of FDI... Eastern, European, and American companies are all contributing, while Hungarian companies are increasingly capable of launching projects aided by the government,” he said. He noted changes to government business subsidies, saying they had made the system “even more productive”. Meanwhile, he said the government had made strenuous efforts to close the gap between the eastern and western parts of the country by encouraging investment projects in Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Debrecen, and Szeged. “And we can now say that the north-west and the east are on the same level,” he added.