According to GKI Economic Research Company’s gauge, consumer confidence edged up to 33 points in November compared to the 34.1 points in the previous month.
The index has recovered about 43 percent of a drop in April, when the country went into lockdown. Consumers’ fear of unemployment moderated.
In November, households’ assessment of their financial situations improved and are at about half of the pre-pandemic level. Their outlook on the Hungarian economy as a whole has also improved.
Households’ evaluation of their ability to make savings had a minimal change. Slightly more households intend to buy big-ticket consumer durables.
Aligned with consumer confidence increasing, the recovery of the Hungarian automotive sector has also been on the rise.
The sector had contracted for several months after pandemic shutdowns in the spring. As of September the automotive industry accounted for 32 percent of manufacturing output.
A key element to industrial growth, in September the output of the automotive sector rose 7.8 percent year-on-year. This picked up from the 6.4 percent increase in August.