Hungarian foreign trade posts significant surplus

In July 2015, the volume of exports and imports was up by 6% and 3.4%, respectively, year-on-year. Thus, foreign trade surplus rose to EUR 646 million in the month of July 2015, while the surplus accumulated in the period January-July 2015 reached EUR 4.9 bn.

In the initial seven months of the year, the volume of the exports and imports of goods grew by 8.3% and 6.9%, respectively, gaining EUR 1.2 bn year-on-year. According to the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy it was the motor vehicle manufacturing sector and the pharmaceuticals sector that mainly contributed to this growth.

Available data suggests that there was a slight change in the composition of trade volume growth. While the export volume of motor vehicles (+24%) and products from related sub sectors increased dynamically, there was significant growth also the export volume of pharmaceuticals (+20.7%), which trend is expected to continue in coming months.

This volume growth was partly attributable to production capacity expansion and the opening of distribution centres. Higher trade surplus was also the result of lower gas demand due to a mild winter (-39.4%) and the fall in imported oil prices (-31.9%).

Although, summer holidays may have resulted in weaker data in the month of August, in the remainder of the year the sector is expected to resume a dynamic growth trend.