Hungary's foreign trade surplus widened by 6% y/y to EUR 3.28bn in the first half of 2014, the statistics office said on September 2 revising down the preliminary estimate of EUR 3.58bn. Exports grew by 4.4% y/y to EUR 41.82bn in the period, while imports increased at the slower pace of 4.3% y/y to EUR 38.54bn.
In terms of specific commodity groups, exports of machinery and transport equipment, which had a 54.6% share in total, expanded by 5.9% y/y to EUR 22.82bn. Exports of manufactured goods increased by 3.6% y/y and accounted for a third of the total (32.1%). Exports of food, beverages, tobacco as well as fuels and electric energy advanced by 3.3% y/y and 6% y/y, respectively. By contrast, exports of crude material declined by 11% y/y.
On the import side, manufactured goods advanced by 6.5% y/y. Imports of machinery and transport equipment, which was the most traded category in the period with a 46.3% share of total, increased by 5.2% y/y to EUR 17.83bn. Imports of food, beverages, tobacco were up by 7.3% y/y as well, while imports of crude materials dropped by 6.5% y/y in the period. Finally, imports of fuels declined by 4.2% y/y in H1.
In June alone, Hungary's foreign trade surplus increased by 32.3% y/y to EUR 584.1mn as exports rose by 5.6% y/y, while imports were up by 3.6% y/y.
| Foreign trade in H1 2014, EUR mn | ||||
| Import | % y/y | Export | % y/y | |
| Total | 38,540 | 4.3 | 41,824 | 4.4 |
| Food, beverages, tobacco | 1,977 | 7.3 | 3,116 | 3.3 |
| Crude materials | 815 | -6.5 | 1,099 | -11.0 |
| Fuels, electric energy | 4,461 | -4.2 | 1,370 | 6.0 |
| Manufactured goods | 13,459 | 6.5 | 13,421 | 3.6 |
| Machinery and transport equipment | 17,829 | 5.2 | 22,819 | 5.9 |
| Source: KSH | ||||
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