Analysts draw different outlooks from growth in manufacturing, machinery investments

A pickup in manufacturing and machinery investments in the third quarter is positive, but may or may not point to an improvement in the future, analysts told MTI on Wednesday after the Central Statistics Office (KSH) published fresh data.

While investment volume in Hungary fell 5.4% in Q3 from the same period a year earlier, manufacturing sector investments were up a sharp 27.3% and machinery investments climbed 21.9%, KSH said in the morning.

Gergely Suppan, an analyst for TakarekBank said the increases in manufacturing and machinery investments were welcome, but the headline figure was hit by a drop in government-funded investments, albeit from a high base. Some HUF 75bn in network improvements at Hungary’s three mobile telecommunications companies do not appear to have shown up in the data yet, and production capacity being built at the Hungarian bases of German carmakers Audi and Opel should have had a similar effect, he added.

Overall investment volume could grow next year as the Opel and Audi expansions generate about 8% of the total, he said.

Raiffeisen Bank’s Zoltan Torok attributed the increase in manufacturing and machinery investments to automotive industry developments. When these investments by Audi, Opel and Daimler wind up, the engine of growth will stop and investments volume could fall again next year, he added.