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Local Opinion: 3rd Quarter Growth Hits 5%

• 10 Dec 2018 7:48 AM
• BudaPost

Reacting to record breaking growth statistics, a left-wing columnist predicts that the growth curb has reached its peak and expects slower growth next year.

Népszava’s Miklós Bonta finds the 3rd quarter year on year 5 per cent growth rate a great surprise for observers, who forecast much more modest figures for this year.

(Annual growth is now expected to be well above 4 per cent, with most industries and services growing at around 3 per cent, but construction hitting a record 20 per cent.) 

Bonta suggests that the surplus growth compared to expectations may be due to an accelerated rhythm of EU funded projects. The government planned to use all funds scheduled by the EU for the 2013 to 2020 period by next spring. 61 per cent has already been distributed this year, compared to the EU average of 20 per cent.

The stream of EU subsidies will therefore necessarily become thinner in the future and in the new EU budget cycle (from 2020 to 2027) Hungary will definitely be allotted less than in previous cycles, owing both to Brexit and to EU plans to allot more funds to South European countries. 5,2 per cent was the peak, which will hardly be repeated, Bonta writes.

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Launched in May 2011 to provide a balanced picture of matters covered in Hungary’s national press. Their aim is to make it easier for English-speakers to understand where this country is now and where it’s heading according to the full spectrum of media opinions.

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