Hungary's foreign trade surplus declined by 3.3% y/y to EUR 3.5bn in January to June 2013, the statistics office said, revising down the preliminary figure of EUR 3.7bn. Export grew by 1% y/y to EUR 40.4bn, which was slightly slower than the imports’ growth of 1.4% y/y to EUR 30.58bn.
In terms of specific commodity groups, exports of manufactured goods, which have a 32.5% share in total, grew 5.8% y/y to EUR 13.1bn. Machinery and transport equipment picked up by 0.8% y/y and accounted for more than half of the total (53.6%). By contrast, fuel exports declined by 18.3% y/y in H1 2013. Food and crude material exports were 2.9% and 8% lower on the year, respectively.
On the import side, manufactured goods advanced by 4% y/y. Imports of machinery and transport equipment, which was the most traded category in the period with a 45.4% share of total, picked up by 1% y/y to EUR 16.8bn. Among groups with lower weight, imports of food, beverages, tobacco increased in H1, while imports of crude materials and fuels saw annual decline in the period.
In June alone, Hungary’s foreign trade surplus shrank by 23.1% y/y to EUR 580.7mn as exports decreased by 3.2% y/y and imports dropped by 0.8% y/y.
| Foreign trade in H1 2013, EUR mn | ||||
| Import | % y/y | Export | % y/y | |
| Total | 36,887 | 1.4 | 40,393 | 1.0 |
| Food, beverages, tobacco | 1,892 | 1.1 | 3,073 | -2.9 |
| Crude materials | 849 | -7.5 | 1,248 | -8.0 |
| Fuels, electric energy | 4,662 | -1.6 | 1,284 | -18.3 |
| Manufactured goods | 12,726 | 4.0 | 13,135 | 5.8 |
| Machinery and transport equipment | 16,759 | 1.0 | 21,654 | 0.8 |
| Source: KSH | ||||
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