The report of the International Monetary Fund on Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe published earlier today paints a positive picture of the current and future economic situation of the region.

The document shows that the IMF has since the forecast of last autumn reconsidered its estimate of Hungary’s economy growth. Instead of the 2.3 percent GDP growth formerly predicted for 2015, the IMF is expecting the economy to grow by as much as 2.7 percent. The IMF has also upgraded the outlook for 2016. The report states that Hungary’s indicators on imbalances have also improved. While both the general government debt-to-GDP ratio and the external debt-to-GDP ratio have declined, this improving trend is expected to remain in place.

More and more international think tanks and economic institutions are upgrading their forecasts on Hungary’ economic outlook; the IMF report is another milestone in this process. The European Commission published last week the latest prognosis on the state of the Hungarian economy, forecasting that Hungary’s economy is set to grow by 2.8 percent in 2015 instead of the prior estimate of 2.4 percent.

The Convergence Programme, which was submitted to the European Commission in April 2015, predicts that the economy will expand by 3.1 percent in 2015 and by 2.5 percent in 2016. The rationale for this high growth estimate is that major positive domestic driving forces are expected to remain in place or even improve. Labour market processes are heading in the right direction and the level of employment may further increase. The income status of households is another factor that is set to improve, underpinned by low oil process and the successful settlement of the forex loan issue.

(Ministry for National Economy)