In December 2018, the volume of sales in retail shops rose by 3.7% according to raw data, and by 4.1% adjusted for calendar effects, compared to the same month of 2017, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) confirmed in a second reading Thursday.

Construction industry association EVOSZ is urging the government to make funding for investments at SMEs available sooner, association chairman László Koji told state news agency MTI.

Hungaryʼs rolling four-quarter net household financial savings ratio slipped to 5.9% of GDP in 2018, show preliminary data published by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) on Monday, as reported by state news agency MTI.   

Hungaryʼs national debt as a percentage of GDP reached 70.9% at the end of last year, down from 73.4% at the end of 2017, preliminary data released by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) on Monday show, state news wire MTI reported.

Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, one of the three big ratings agencies, has upgraded Hungary’s sovereign rating to "BBB," two notches over the investment grade threshold, with a "stable" outlook, state news wire MTI reported late Friday evening. 

Farmgate prices in Hungary were up 5.8% year-on-year in December 2018, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said today, Hungarian news agency MTI reports.

Hungaryʼs Minister of Finance has set the quota for work permits issued to foreign nationals from countries outside of the European Union at 57,000 for this year, a notice published in the latest issue of the official journal Hivatalos Értesítő shows, state news wire MTI says.

The gross domestic product of Hungary was up by 5.0% according to raw data, and by 4.8% according to seasonally and calendar-adjusted and reconciled data in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to Q4 2017, according to a flash estimate released Thursday by the Central Statistical Office (KSH). Full-year growth is estimated at 4.8%.

Production volume of Hungaryʼs automotive industry - accounting for about 27.1% of total manufacturing output - rose 9.9% year-on-year in December, a second reading of data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) shows. Overall industrial output rose 5.4% year-on-year in December, and 3.6% in 2018 as a whole.

The German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DUIHK) has begun its 25th annual Business and Investment Climate Survey, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.

The volume of construction output, based on raw data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH), was 17.5% higher in December 2018 than a year earlier. In 2018 as a whole, construction output grew by 22.3% compared to 2017, while construction producer prices were on average 9.5% higher than in the previous year.

Consumer prices were 2.7% higher on average in January 2019 than a year earlier, level with the rate of inflation in December. Significant price rises have been measured over the past year for alcoholic beverages and tobacco, as well as food, according to the latest release of monthly data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Commercial accommodation establishments saw a 3.8% growth in tourism nights in 2018, accompanied by a 9.3% rise in gross revenues compared to a year before, with December growth boosted by long weekends over the holiday period, according to data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Hungary has the joint lowest ratio of women to men in science and engineering in the European Union, according to a survey by the EU’s official statistical agency Eurostat.

Hungaryʼs National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) will start sending businesses certificates for employees eligible for payroll tax preferences on Monday, taking over the administrative burden from employers, NAV head Norbert Izer told state news wire MTI.

Hungaryʼs cash flow-based general government, excluding local councils, ran a HUF 244.5 billion surplus at the end of January, the Ministry of Finance said in a preliminary flash release on Friday. The deficit target for the full year is HUF 998.4 bln, noted state news agency MTI.   

The surplus of external trade in goods was EUR 398 million in the month of December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Friday. In euro terms, exports increased by 2.7% and imports grew by 5.4% in December 2018, compared to the same month of the previous year.

The European Commission (EC) confirmed its projection for Hungaryʼs GDP growth this year at 3.4% in a quarterly forecast released Thursday. The projection was unchanged from the 3.4% forecast published in November, and is still well under the governmentʼs forecast of 3.9%.   

In December 2018, the volume of industrial output grew by 5.4% year-on-year, according to a first estimate of monthly data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH). Based on working day-adjusted data, December output rose by 5.7%.

Sales of retail shops grew an unadjusted 3.7% year-on-year in December 2018, and by 6.0% in the whole year of 2018 according to both raw and calendar-adjusted data, shows a first reading of data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Tuesday.