Prices

The HCSO Weekly Monitor is replaced by the HCSO Monitor starting 11 October 2023. The interactive collection of figures, available on the HCSO website, continues to inform about the latest domestic and international social and economic trends, at the same time figures of First Releases have been added to the subjects, as such the content of its categories changed to a certain extent.
The figures of the HCSO Monitor may be downloaded, as before, in image and data formats (PNG, SVG and CSV).
Feel free to browse the latest data of the HCSO!

Industrial producer prices were 6.6% lower on average in October 2023 compared to one year earlier. Domestic output prices rose by 0.4% and non-domestic output prices decreased by 9.9%. The large difference was primarily due to domestic output prices in the energy industry – producing goods basically for the domestic market, within which representing a large weight – being still higher than a year earlier, while non-domestic output prices there being already substantially lower. The development of industrial producer prices was influenced also by the annual strengthening of the forint against the euro. Compared to the previous month, both domestic output prices and non-domestic output prices lessened by 0.6%, so industrial producer prices as a whole were down by 0.6%, too.

Tens of thousands of data of the approximately 500 tables, graphs and maps offer an overview of Hungary’s demographic, social and economic processes, its environmental specifics and their timely changes. Unemployment in the 15–74 age group decreased year-on-year, being 3.6% in 2022. We amass this year commercial, private and other accommodation establishments in one unit, a novelty approach of our publication, providing a better picture about tourist traffic. Tourism nights at accommodation establishments were 39 million 821 thousand in 2022.

Consumer prices were 9.9% higher on average in October 2023 than a year earlier and decreased by 0.1% on average compared to September, within which motor fuels became 3.8% and food 0.1% cheaper.

The GDP volume lagged behind the same period of the previous year’s level by 1.7% in the 1st semester of 2023. Final consumption and gross accumulation both contributed to this trend, while the balance of the external trade significantly improved. Following the January inflation peak the growth rate of consumer prices lessened, consequently the decrease of real wages was more subdued, too. At the same time the setback in external trade turnover, typical for most EU countries, gradually slowed down during the 2nd quarter.

Agricultural producer prices rose by 6.9% in the 1st half of 2023, within which the price of crop products diminished by 3.0% and that of animals and animal products increased by 32%. The 16% increase in input prices was influenced about to the same extent by the price rises for the components of intermediate consumption and for investments. The price level went up by 16% in the case of the former and by 15% for the latter. The value of the agricultural terms of trade was 92.2%.

The processes taken place in 2022 were mainly determined by the uncertain global environment due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the general and considerable price increases worldwide. Despite these challenges, the Hungarian economy's performance expanded by 4.6% year-on-year, above the EU average. Employment reached a new record high and average earnings rose significantly, but the impact of this was gradually eroded by surging inflation. Population decline continued at a lower pace than in the previous year.

Despite the adverse economic effects, GDP volume in 2022 was 4.6% higher than a year earlier, while the employment rate expanded to 74.4%. Fewer deaths followed the end of the pandemic, but the birth rate also fell compared to 2021. In addition to the above data, the tables and graphs in the latest edition of the Statistical Pocketbook of Hungary, published every spring, provide a comprehensive insight into the evolution of social and economic trends in Hungary in 2022.