Hungary's industrial output picked up by 0.5% y/y in August 2014, sharply easing from a 12.3% growth in the previous month, the statistics office said on October 14 confirming the preliminary figures published a week earlier. The slowdown was due to the manufacturing of transport equipment and the related supply branches as well as the food sectors.

In workday-adjusted terms, production grew by 2.9% y/y in August and adjusted for seasonal effects it went down by 5.7% m/m.

The manufacturing sector edged up by an annual 0.1% in August, reflecting a sharp slowdown in the transport equipment sector where production growth eased to 4.9% y/y rise from double-digit levels in the previous months. At the same time, the food sector saw 0.7% y/y decline, partly due to the Russian embargo. Production of computer and electronics expanded by 1.4% y/y in August.

The mining and quarrying sector witnessed a 2.7% y/y produciton growth and the energy sector expanded by 4% y/y in August.

Industrial export sales increased by 2.5% y/y in August, mainly on the back of a 10.8% y/y growth in transport equipment exports, which represented nearly a third of the manufacturing sales abroad. By contrast, the computer, electronic and optical products sector, which accounted for a sixth of the manufacturing exports, dropped by 1.1% y/y.

Industrial domestic sales were 1.4% higher on the year in August, pushed up by a 2.4% y/y rise in manufacturing sales.

New manufacturing orders edged down by 0.4% y/y in August, reflecting an 4.7% y/y decrease in domestic orders, while new export orders were up by 0.3% y/y. The total stock of orders was up 18.2% y/y at end-August.

In aggregate terms, the industrial output increased by 8.7% y/y in the first eight months of 2014.

Hungary's industrial output grew by 1.4% y/y in 2013, recovering from a 1.8% y/y drop in 2012. The improvement was exclusively due to a 4.9% y/y rise in export sales, which more than offset a 1.8% y/y drop in sales on the domestic market.