Hungarian companies satisfied with EU membership

The survey revealed that almost the half of the companies (49%) has experienced a positive effect of the membership. The other half (%45) has seen no positive or negative effects while only 6% reported about the dominance of disadvantages. GKI’s 2005 survey investigating the same issue showed executives’ modesty about the prospects.

The majority of the respondents (69%) reported that the membership is generally good for the Hungarian economy with only 12% claiming that it is unfavorable. Expectations are highly dispersed about the period up to 2020.

“According to the relative majority of respondents (42 per cent), the difference in per capita gross domestic product between Hungary and the EU average will remain at its current level until the end of the decade. 32 per cent of them expect the narrowing of this gap, whereas 26 per cent its widening. These data do not reflect serious optimism” study says.

Participants of the survey, in two thirds, are expecting the fastest growth opportunities in the productive sectors, while the rest proposes services to be strong. Potentially fast-growing sector is agriculture, according to the respondents. These data are not surprising as the government favors agriculture for its overwhelming majority of hungaricums.

The chief executives are excited and curious about how the adoption of currency euro would affect the economy, however the government is not planning the conversion in the period until 2020. In 42% the respondents expect positive changes to take place while 14% would bet on negative effects. The advent of euro would be beneficial for industrial companies as well as medium-sized and larger companies.

(diagram and chart made and published by GKI Economic Research Co.)