Hungary's foreign trade surplus widened by 6.7% y/y to EUR 3.77bn in the first seven months of 2014, the statistics office said on October 2 revising down the preliminary estimate of EUR 3.78bn. Exports grew by 5.1% y/y to EUR 49.13bn in the period, while imports increased at the slightly slower pace of 5% y/y to EUR 45.36bn.
In terms of specific commodity groups, exports of machinery and transport equipment, which had a 54.4% share in total, expanded by 6.9% y/y to EUR 26.7bn. Exports of manufactured goods increased by 3.9% y/y and accounted for a third of the total (32%). Exports of food, beverages, tobacco as well as fuels and electric energy advanced by 2.7% y/y and 8.7% y/y, respectively. By contrast, exports of crude material declined by 10.4% y/y.
On the import side, manufactured goods advanced by 6.7% y/y. Imports of machinery and transport equipment, which was the most traded category in the period with a 46% share of total, increased by 5.6% y/y to EUR 20.9bn. Imports of food, beverages, tobacco were up by 6.5% y/y as well, while imports of crude materials dropped by 4.7% y/y in the period. Finally, imports of fuels declined by 0.8% y/y in the first seven month of 2014.
In July alone, Hungary's foreign trade surplus increased by 11.6% y/y to EUR 482mn as exports rose by 9.2% y/y, while imports were up by 9% y/y.
| Foreign trade in Jan-July 2014, EUR mn | ||||
| Import | % y/y | Export | % y/y | |
| Total | 45,364 | 5.0 | 49,130 | 5.1 |
| Food, beverages, tobacco | 2,302 | 6.5 | 3,686 | 2.7 |
| Crude materials | 967 | -4.7 | 1,315 | -10.4 |
| Fuels, electric energy | 5,364 | -0.8 | 1,688 | 8.7 |
| Manufactured goods | 15,853 | 6.7 | 15,738 | 3.9 |
| Machinery and transport equipment | 20,879 | 5.6 | 26,703 | 6.9 |
| Source: KSH | ||||
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