The 3rd Global Forum on Productivity organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fostering international co-operation between public bodies and promoting productivity-enhancing policies has opened in Budapest.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Hungarian authorities have agreed to set up a working group to analyse the impact on the banking sector of the recent amendment of the Judicial Enforcement Act.

The Hungarian Development Center (MFK) has signed a representative partnership agreement with the Spanish project development company Inspiralia in the Spanish capital, Madrid in order to cooperate in European Union tenders.

After November, the GKI economic sentiment index rose again in December. According to
the empirical survey by GKI, business expectations increased slightly, whereas consumer ones went up more strongly, reaching their ten-year peak.

The Swedish Ambassador to Hungary, Niclas Trouvé, presented the publication ‘Sweden Hungary Business Guide’ promoting the Hungarian investment environment. The event took place on Lucia’s Day, which is considered the brightest Swedish holiday.

The volume of investments in Hungary contracted by 9.3% y/y in the third quarter of 2016. This decrease, portfolio.hu notes should not be considered as dramatic, though, given that investments grew by 2.7% over the previous quarter.

Following its three-year low in October, Hungary's GKI economic sentiment index (issued with the support from the EU) strengthened to its spring level in November. both business and consumer expectations improved in November.

According to the Hungarian people, corruption is an increasingly serious problem, while the number of those who believe that one can act against it is on the decline, the Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International (TI) says about Hungary.

The Hungarian government aims to attract various important institutions of the European Union, as well as a larger group of western companies to Hungary from London, Economy Minister Mihály Varga told a pro-government newspaper.

Eurostat is maintaining the reservation on the quality of the data reported by Hungary in relation to the sector classification of Eximbank which needs to be reclassified inside the general government sector resulting in an increase in government debt.

The Hungarian Prime Minister’s cabinet chief, János Lázár announced at his regular weekly briefing this thursday that the country must find the wqys to be more competitive and catch up with Poland in the Visegrád Group.

After reaching its lowest point this year in August, the GKI economic sentiment index rose within the statistical margin of error in September 2016. That is according to the empirical survey conducted by Hungarian think tank GKI.

A new set of data are evidence that labour shortage is becoming an increasingly pressing problem in the Hungarian economy. The number of job vacancies grew by over 3,000 in the second quarter since the end of March 2016, portfolio.hu reports.

A law amendment changing the regulation of the excise tax on fuels will come into effect in Hungary in early September. In view of the current market developments, chances are high that the excise tax on both gasoline and diesel will rise as of October.

The volume of investments in the Hungarian economy was 20.3% lower in the second quarter of 2016 than in the same period of 2015, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported on Wednesday. Compared to the previous quarter investments were down 0.8%.