The volume of exports and imports in Hungary grew year-on-year by 9.5 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively, in the month of October 2015. Foreign trade posted a surplus of EUR 605 million in the observed period, up by EUR 322 million year-on-year. According to estimates, the full-year surplus may reach an all-time high amount of EUR 8bn.

In the initial ten months of the year, the volume of Hungarian exports and imports of goods rose by 8.1 percent and 7.2 percent, and thus the accumulated foreign trade surplus in the period January-October totalled EUR 6.8bn, which constitutes an increase of EUR 1.4bn. Over the past months, exports gained in several commodity groups. Along with the motor vehicle manufacturing sector, the pharmaceuticals industry has also driven exports and thus the export structure has become more balanced.

As the 22 percent growth of vehicle exports has been underpinned by dynamic increases at related sub sectors, the motor vehicle industry as a whole has accounted for almost half of export volume growth. The exports of electric machinery and rubber products gained 15.5 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. The export volume growth of pharmaceutical products was below last month’s figure, but it was still high with 14 percent.

The Ministry for National Economy is expecting favourable trends to persist also in the last months of the year and foreign trade surplus to reach an unprecedented amount of EUR 8bn for the full year.

(Ministry for National Economy)