Central European Daily

The 4Q13 preliminary GDP figures delivered positive surprise in most of the countries in Europe. As 80% of Hungary’s foreign trade is linked to the European Union, the favorable environment helped Hungarian economic growth as well, so it increased by 0.6% Q/Q and 2.7% Y/Y. The working day adjusted GDP growth was 1.2% Y/Y in 2013. The preliminary figure doesn’t include the details of the growth, so we can make some conclusion from other statistics, which suggests that agriculture, construction and services sector performance may boost the growth on supply side, while the new swing may come from domestic consumption and investment on the demand side. The main – although only partly good news – as GDP growth accelerated on quarteron-quarter basis in Hungary’s main trading partners and also in the CEE region – that Hungary’s economic growth slowed (from 0.8% Q/Q in 3Q13 to 0.6% Q/Q in 4Q13) less than expected. It confirms our view that economy may grow by 2% Y/Y in 2014.