Fresh trade data no surprise; analysts put year-end surplus as high as €6.6 bln

Analysis

Fresh data showing a slowdown in import and export growth in June were no surprise to analysts who put Hungary's full-year trade surplus at €6.5 billion-6.6 billion, up from €5.5bn in 2010.

Hungary's year-on-year euro-term export growth slowed to 3.1% in June from 20.5% in May, the central statistics office KSH said early Friday. Import growth decelerated to 3.8% from 15.6% in the same period.

KSH attributed part of the decline to a high base for trade of communications, recording and playback equipment as sales of televisions spiked in June of 2010 because of the World Cup.

Dávid Németh of ING Bank said that if KSH is right, export growth could return to around 10% in the segment in the coming months. He put both export and import growth at 5-10% for the rest of the year, projecting a year-end surplus of €6.5bn.

Gergely Suppán of TakarekBank put the annual trade surplus at €6.6bn.

SUPPORT THE BUDAPEST BUSINESS JOURNAL

Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For 27 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.
Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.

Support the BBJ

Statistics