Gross average wages in the private sector increased by 9.2 percent in July 2012, whereas net wages excluding family tax allowances were up by 6.2 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year – the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported earlier today in a statistical release.
Opening to the East is reasonable regarding the external trade of Hungary, as the growth engine of the global economy is already outside Europe, Deputy State Secretary for External Economic Relations Balázs Hidvéghi said at the joint conference of the economic daily Világgazdaság and the Hungarian Foreign Trade Association, on Thursday in Budapest.
The government's job protection scheme costing the budget 300 billion forints (EUR 105m) in 2013 is expected to protect 1.5 million jobs and create several hundred thousand more, Economy Minister György Matolcsy said on Tuesday.
In the second quarter of 2012 Hungary’s GDP – matching almost exactly prior expectations – decreased by 1.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Several countries in the EU have similar trends, Italy and Portugal have been in deep recession, while the economy of our regional peer, the Czech Republic, contracted by more than 1 percent according to preliminary data.
The change of Hungary’s place in the category evaluating macroeconomic environment, in the competitiveness ranking of the World Economic Forum aptly demonstrates that although the financial consolidation process of the past two years was painful but a success nonetheless.
Sándor Czomba, Deputy State Secretary for Employment spoke today at the inauguration of a new factory hall at British American Tobacco’s plant in Pécs. He praised the company’s long-term commitment to Hungary, where this year it is investing nearly 3 billion forints (over 10 million euros) and creating new jobs.
According to Central Statistics Office (KSH) data, in May-July 2012 the unemployment rate has receded to 10.5% from 10.9%. Among the 15-74 age group, the number of people employed rose to over 3.908 million, the highest figure since the onset of the economic crisis in the autumn of 2008.
According to the report issued by the Ministry for National Economy, in the month of July 2012, the central sub sector of the state budget registered a remarkable surplus. With regard to the end-of-July deficits, this year’s figure of 56.7 percent is much more favourable than the 81.8 percent in 2011.
In June 2012 the industrial sector put up a positive performance just as it did in the previous month, the pace of growth however has declined marginally. Unadjusted and working day-adjusted industrial output both increased by 0.6 percent in June compared to the same period of the previous year, which was primarily due to the continued favourable performance of transport equipment manufacturing and the food industry. The seasonally and working day-adjusted monthly index declined by 2.2 percent.
In the second quarter of 2012 Hungary could not detach itself from negative international economic tendencies either. After growth of 1.7 per cent in 2011, which was a high figure even in Europe, in the second quarter of 2012 according to adjusted data GDP declined by 1 per cent. This decline is smaller compared to the previous quarter (unadjusted data signal contraction of 1.2 per cent) – the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported earlier this morning in its release. According to that, about half of the sectors of national economy stagnated. The performance of information and communication sectors increased, whereas that of construction declined significantly.