Hungary: GDP growth accelerates in Q4
A second release showed that GDP growth accelerated to 7.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, from 6.2% in the third quarter.
The acceleration was driven by strengthening private and government consumption, as well as by faster export growth. Private consumption growth accelerated to 7.1% year-on-year in Q4 following the 5.4% expansion logged in Q4, while fixed investment growth slowed to 3.3% in Q4 from 11.6% in the previous quarter. Government consumption, meanwhile, sped up to a 5.8% increase in Q4 (Q3: +5.5% yoy).
On the external front, growth in exports of goods and services increased to 3.2% in Q4 (Q3: +2.7% yoy). In addition, growth in imports of goods and services moderated to 2.3% in Q4 (Q3: +6.4% yoy).
On a seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, economic growth strengthened notably to 2.0% in Q4, following the previous period’s 0.9% expansion.