External trade and balance of payments

External trade statistics are made up of two main areas. Goods trade statistics collect data on the movement of physically existing goods among countries, while external services trade statistics take account of international trade in typically intangible services (e.g. travel, transport). Although services account for the larger part of production, some four-fifths of external trade is in goods. The difference is due to the differing degrees of storability and transportability. The balance of payments is a statistical statement that systematises the economic transactions of a particular country with the rest of the world in a particular period.

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Deficit on external trade in goods amounts to EUR 193 million in July, exports decrease by 9.5% and imports by 1.8% compared to June, External trade in goods, July 2021 (first estimate)

The value of exports was 10% and that of imports 15% larger in EUR terms in July 2021 than in the same period of the previous year. The balance of external trade in goods deteriorated by EUR 379 million. Compared to June, the value of exports became 9.5% and that of imports 1.8% lower. A contributor to the deceleration of exports in July compared to the previous month could also be – according to industrial data for July – a decrease in the performance of the manufacture of transport equipment, representing a large weight. The EUR value of exports was 5.4% and that of imports 8.5% higher than in July 2019.

Surplus of the external trade in services was EUR 1571 million in the 2nd quarter, External trade in services, 2nd quarter 2021

In the 2nd quarter of 2021 service exports calculated in EUR increased by 21%, while its imports decreased by 3.4% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The surplus was EUR 1571 million, EUR 983 million more than in the 2nd quarter of 2020. The negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are almost non-perceptible in the external trade in services. Exports increased by 17% and imports decreased only by 0.6% compared to the previous quarter.

Hungary's external trade in 2019

The corona virus epidemic reached global levels in March 2020. The government's and enterprises' measures implemented to mitigate risks influence substantially Hungary's external trade size and structure. The majority of the countries mostly hit by the epidemic belong to Hungary's main partners in external trade in goods. Germany had an outstanding share of 27% of the total trade in goods, the proportion of France, China, Italy and Spain was 2–5% each in 2019.