Industrial output picks up in Hungary

The strong start of Q4 is no surprise to the analysts of portfolio.hu. The temporary shutdown of production at Suzuki at the end of last summer lasted several months (as the company was getting ready for the production of a new model), therefore, it was already expected that once such factors no longer affect IP, the output numbers will be more robust, too.

In the remainder of the year, the financial website projects no further acceleration in the sector’s production. The scheduled winter recess in the automotive sector could bring about contraction on a short base. As a result, analysts estimate the annual average production volume growth at 7.0-7.5% for 2015.

Portfolio.hu does expect a moderate deceleration next year, as car manufacturing will shift into lower gears (now that no further capacity boosts are in the pipeline) and the momentum of the other manufacturing sectors is greatly below what the automotive industry, with a weight of nearly one third in IP, is capable of.

Output increased by 7.1% in the first ten months of this year compared to the same period of 2014.

As Deputy State Secretary Áron Márk Lenner said, commenting on the latest data released by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the Ministry for National Economy is expecting similar data for the remainder of the year, as both Hungarian and German confidence indices are pointing to continuing growth momentum.

Áron Márk Lenner added that thanks to motor vehicle demand from Western Europe, the car manufacturing sector has remained the largest growth engine among sectors. Hungarian car manufacturers and their suppliers have recently registered massive increases in the volume of orders which signals that demand has not weakened, he said. While the slow-down of China’s economy does pose a risk, it has hitherto left the Hungarian industrial sector unaffected.