Housing and motorway investments fell after rapid rises a year before, KSH noted. Manufacturing investments also fell, however, and were down for the second quarter in a row. Seasonally adjusted investment volume fell 0.1% year-on-year in Q2 2006. Compared to the previous quarter, seasonally adjusted investment volume rose 1.5%. In the first half of 2006, investment volume rose 1.8% year-on-year to Ft 1,774.745 billion. In 2005, investment volume increased 6.4%, slowing from a 7.8% rise in 2004.
In Q2 2006, construction investments fell 6.8% year-on-year, while machinery investments rose 1.9%. First-half construction investments, however, were up 2.6% year-on-year and machinery investments rose 2.7%.
Among Hungary’s biggest sectors, second-quarter investments in the business and real estate services sector, which includes housing investments, fell a sharp 9.4% year-on-year. Part of the reason for the decline was a high base: investments were up 5.2% year-on-year in Q2 2005. In the first quarter of 2006, investments in the sector grew 4.8% year-on-year, resulting in a H1 fall of 3.7%.
Second-quarter investments in the transport, storage, postal services and telecommunications sector fell 7%, mainly because of a drop in motorway construction volume. In the previous quarter, investment volume in the sector jumped 52.1% year-on-year, and in Q2 2005, investments rose a marked 40.9% year-on-year. H1 2006 investments in the sector were still up 18.0% year-on-year. In the manufacturing sector, investments fell 5.5% year-on-year in Q2 2006, after declining 9.3% year-on-year in the previous quarter, or a combined fall of 7.1% in H1. Investments in the sector were up 8.3% year-on-year in Q2 2005 and rose only 2.4% in the whole of 2005 after a steep 15.3% rise in 2004.
Trade sector investments were down 9.6% from a year earlier in Q2, resulting in a slight year-on-year fall in the first half, after a 11.3% rise in 2005. Investments in the electricity, gas, steam and water supply sector fell 8.2% year-on-year in Q2 alone and were down almost 10% in H1, after drops experienced in the past two years.
Among Hungary’s smaller sectors, investments increased a marked 47.2% in the public administration sector, after a similar increase in Q1, largely due to flood-related investments, KSH said. Investments in the sector were down 1.6% in 2005. Investments in the education sector were up 18.9% year-on-year in Q2 from a low base after leveling out in Q1, because of renovations and expansions at university buildings. Education investments rose an overall 15.6% last year. Investments in the hotel and catering sector rose 18.2% year-on-year in Q2 after expanding 30.7% in Q1, boosted by hotel constructions. Agriculture investments in Q2 were up 8.3% after a steep 19.3% fall in the first quarter, mainly because of a rise in subsidies available for machinery purchases.