Hungary’s industrial output his risen by an annual 11.1 percent in August, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) has said.
István Lepsényi, state secretary at the ministry of National Economy, said that it was clear, based on the latest industrial output data, that the economy was picking up and it would continue to do so in the remaining months of the year.
Meanwhile, analysts told MTI that they expected industrial output to continue strengthening in the remaining part of the year.
Gergely Suppan of Takarékbank said both relatively high industrial confidence indices and the significantly rising purchasing manager index suggest that industrial output growth should continue in the coming months, approaching 3 percent for the full year in 2016 and 5 percent in 2017.
Péter Virovácz of ING Bank forecast 4 percent output growth in 2016. Gergely Ürmössy of Erste Bank predicted average industrial output growth of 2-3 percent this year.
Meanwhile, Hungary’s trade surplus came to 601 million euros in August, KSH reported. The trade surplus grew by 157 million euros from the same period a year earlier.
Exports rose by an annual 12.5 percent to 7.240 billion euros in August. Imports were up by 10.8 percent at 6.638 billion euros. Fully 79 percent of exports went to other European Union member states and 77 percent of imports came from the EU. In January-August period, the trade surplus reached 6.646 billion euros, up by 1.056 billion euros from the same period a year earlier.
Exports rose by 3.0 percent to 60.942 billion euros and imports were up by 1.4 percent to 54.296 billion euros.
The jump in August was preceded by two months of falling output in July and June. Adjusted for the number of working days—there were three more in the base period—output rose by 3.5 percent in August, KSH noted. In January-August, output grew by an annual 2.3 percent.