The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts Hungary’s economic growth at 4.4 percent for 2018 in its latest Economic Outlook.
Mihály Varga, minister of Finance, said the OECD had revised former estimates from November 2017 for both this year and next by 0.8 percentage points each.
The minister stressed that among the 37 OECD member states examined in the report, Hungary’s growth rate is expected to be the fourth highest.
He also highlighted that predictions of the Convergence Programme published at the end of April, which predicted growth of 4.3 percent, the OECD sees consumption growth driven by rapidly rising wages, buoyant investment activity as well as rising exports fuelled by favorable external demand and newly created production capacities as the main factors behind the economic boom.
According to Kormany.hu, the OECD study confirms that the growth of the Hungarian economy will remain stable and broad-based.
The minister said significant minimum wage hikes, rapid job growth and sound household confidence are providing a firm base for further consumption growth.
High labor demand may result once again in double-digit wage growth in 2018 and may cause Hungary’s unemployment rate, already the fourth lowest within the EU, to fall even further.
The minister concluded that the OECD predicts that economic growth within the Visegrad Four is set to remain dynamic across the study’s time horizon and well exceed the average of the euro zone.