Investment

The performance of the Hungarian economy grew by 2.2% in the 1st quarter of 2020, which is a significant tempo-decline compared to the 4-5% increase of the previous two years. The coronavirus epidemic, spreading worldwide by March, severely impacted Hungarian output in the second part of the month. Processes of the world economy, already tainted by tensions and negative expectations have been further damaged in January-February by the spread of the epidemic, impacting indirectly and unfavourably our national economy.

In the second quarter of 2020 the national economy’s investments further decreased, the volume of developments lagged 9.9% behind, compared to the same period of the previous year. Most sections of the national economy contributed to this trend. The investments of the budgetary units declined in a larger degree than the developments of the enterprises. In the case of the former mostly the shrinking performance value of the EU projects, at the latter mainly the unfavourably changing economic environment caused the reduced activity.

In 2018, the Hungarian economy performed 4.9% better compared to the previous year. In parallel with economic growth, the labour market continued to expand dynamically. An important pillar of GDP growth was the improvement in the willingness of economic stakeholders to invest and the use of EU funds. In 2018, among factors influencing population number, the number of births declined faster than that of deaths. So the natural decline of the population continued. The total fertility rate was the same as in 2017, and the inclination to have children was significantly above the 2011 low.