Industrial performance increased by 2.7 per cent in Hungary in February, compared with the year before, while when the effect of business days is removed from this indicator, production increased by 7 per cent. The processing industry increased in eight of its thirteen averages compared with the corresponding month of the previous year. Based on the monthly industrial production data received to date, the performance of the Hungarian industry exceeded that of the European Union’s average.

After last year’s growth of 0.9 per cent, industry has embarked on a dynamic increase in 2017, and the processing industry which is a key factor among the sectors of the national economy increased by 2.7 per cent. The production of mining, a sector with a modest weight, increased by 6.2 per cent, while the output of the energy industry increased by 1.7 per cent in the second month of the year.

From among the more significant sub-sectors, the output of the manufacture of vehicles accounting for more than 30 per cent of the production of the processing industry, grew by 1.4 per cent. Regarding the two determining sub-sectors – accounting for 96 per cent in combination – the production of road vehicles increased by 0.5 per cent, while the production of spare parts for road vehicles grew by 3.6%. The second most significant sub-sector, the production of computers, and electronic and optic products accounting for 11 per cent of the production of the processing industry exceeded that of a year earlier by 2.2 per cent. The more significant of the industry’s two largest sub-sectors, the production of electronic consumer goods increased by 5 per cent, while the smaller sub-sector, the production of telecommunications equipment increased by 6.5 per cent.

As regards the sub-sectors of the processing industry, the production of vehicles and tyres has almost doubled since 2010, having increased by 88.8 per cent in the past seven years. The output of the rest of the processing industry sub-sectors, including the textile industry and wood processing, has increased by almost a third, by 35.8 per cent, similar to the category including the machine and metal sectors and the production of electric equipment, which has undergone an increase of some 36.6 per cent. The food industry falls into the average category from the respect of growth, having increased by 16.1 per cent since 2010.

If we look at a longer term, we may observe that the sector’s production has increased in Hungary by 33.7 per cent since January 2010, and by 17.2 per cent since the beginning of 2014. In the case of the latter, Hungary is ranked second among the countries of the region.

(Ministry of National Economy)