Investment

In the 1st-3rd quarters of 2019 the performance increase of the Hungarian economy continued. The growth was a result on one hand of the performance of the industry, construction and certain service divisions (e.g. commerce, tourism), on the other hand of the strengthening of the consumer and investment activity. Beside the price level increase real earnings surpassed the previous year’s level. Due to fewer live births and basically unchanged death numbers natural decrease was higher than in the 1st-3rd quarters of 2018.

The strong growth in the volume of investments continued in the third quarter of 2019, the volume of investments in the current quarter exceeded the high base of the same period of 2018 by 15%. The expansion of investments was due to enterprises – mainly those in manufacturing – developments conducted by other economic entities did not contribute in merit to the growth.

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.