Prices

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Consumer prices were 25.4% higher on average in February 2023 than a year earlier. The highest price rises were measured for electricity, gas and other fuels as well as food over the last twelve months. In one month, consumer prices increased by 0.8% on average.

Industrial producer prices were 35.0% higher on average in January 2023 than one year earlier. Domestic output prices were up by 64.7% and non-domestic output prices by 20.5%. The faster growth in domestic output prices was due to the proportion of the energy industry, where a significant price increase occurred, being much larger in the domestic than in the non-domestic output. In addition to the steep rise in energy prices, the increase in base material prices and the weakening of the forint – over one year – also had a price-raising effect. Compared to the previous month, domestic output prices rose by 5.7% and non-domestic output prices were cut by 1.5%, so industrial producer prices as a whole were up by 0.8%.

Agricultural producer prices increased by 49% in quarters 1–3 of 2022, within which the price rise for crop products (54%) was higher than that for animals and animal products (39%). The similarly substantial, 46% increase in input prices was primarily owing to a 51% price rise for the components of intermediate consumption, while investment prices were up by 15%. The price increase was connected with disturbance in supplies, a rise in energy prices and the unfavourable weather. The value of the agricultural terms of trade was 102.4%.

As an effect of steeply rising energy and raw material prices, industrial production became substantially more expensive in the European Union from the second half of 2021. Producer prices were 22% higher there on average in November 2022 than a year earlier. The prices increased mostly (by 36%) in Hungary in that month, which could be influenced by the weakening of the forint as well as by a significant growth in wage costs, since the earnings of people working in industry rose in Hungary at a rate well above the EU average.

The economic performance of Hungary surpassed in the 1st–3rd quarters of 2022 the one year earlier level by 6.1%. Consumer prices year-on-year increase in the first ten months was 12.7%, producer prices, characteristically, grew in a much faster pace. Compared to the high base caused by the pandemic, the number of deaths decreased by 9.3%, the natural decrease of the population in January–September 2022 amounted to 35 thousand people, 17% fewer year-on-year.

The price of pigs for slaughter was cut after the peak in September 2022 (733 forints/kilogram), it was 645 forints per kilogram in November 2022, which was, however, even so a price rise of 80% compared to the price of 358 forints/kilogram in November of the previous year. Contrarily, the price of chickens for slaughter – which did not stop growing – was 494 forints per kilogram in November, which was a rise of 1.9% over a month.

Agricultural product prices rose one-and-a-half-fold in November 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year, within which crop product prices became 44% and animal and animal product prices 64% higher. There was a lower rise in the price of all products except for fruits and animal products. The prices in January–November were nearly one and a half times as high as in the same period of the previous year.

The price hike of services is speeding up for more than a year: these were in the 3rd quarter of 2022 on average 13% more expensive year-on-year. All observed service prices – except telecommunication (–2.0%) – grew. Price increases in food and beverage serving services (22%), land transport services and transport services via pipelines (21%), warehousing and support services for transportation (15%) and real estate services (14%) continued to have the greatest impact on the average price changes of the 3rd quarter.

The approximately 500 tables, graphs and maps and tens of thousands of data the Statistical Yearbook of Hungary contains give, for almost one and a half century, an overview of the social and economic processes of the country in the given year. Besides paying attention to the ever changing socio-economic environment and user demands we always strive to share new information: the health chapter broadened this year with indices regarding outpatient care, time series of healthcare expenses, life expectancy in good health and the number of Covid19 infected people.