The export of manufacturing continued to grow

According to quarterly calculations gross domestic product of Hungary increased by 1.7% in the first quarter of 2008, and by 0.9% when adjusted for calendar effects.

 The economic growth of Hungary was less
than the average growth of EU member states in the first quarter. The value added of commodity
producing branches (agriculture, industry and construction) grew by
3.7%, a higher pace than the average of the national economy.2 Mainly
due to the dynamic expand (6.9%) in the industrial performance.
The value added by agriculture
increased by 6.3% after the low level performance of the last year.
Following the trend observed in the
value added by construction, it decreased by 20.2%. Similarly to the
last quarters, though the output was reduced in all domains of
construction, the downfall in the construction of civil engineering
works (especially motorways and motor roads) was especially considerable. A key role was played in
this by the significantly lower number of government orders than
before.
The gross value added by services in
the first quarter of 2008 increased by 0.9%, a slower rate than the
national average. Among services transport, storage and communication
accounted for a relatively high rate of growth (3.6%). The value
added rose at a higher-than-average rate in the field of financial
intermediation, real estate, renting and business activities (2.1%).
The performance of trade, hotels and restaurants stagnated reflected
by the moderate growth of household consumption expenditure. The
value added by public administration, education, health and social
work equalled the level observed in the same quarter of the previous
year.
Looking at the expenditure side of GDP
final consumption was down by 1.6%. Among the main components of final consumption,
household final consumption diminished by 1.1 mainly due to the
decreasing of social transfers in kind granted by the government. The
government consumption fell by 5.2%.
Gross fixed capital formation after the
last quarter increasing was down by 5.4%, due to the considerable
downfall of investments in manufacturing and public administration,
defence and compulsory social security. The domestic use was down by
1.6%.
With the terms of external trade
improving, the volume of exports and imports were up by 13.9% and
10.2%, respectively. Within these the exports and imports of
products, respectively, expanded by 15.3% and 10.4%, while the
exports of services grew by 5.7% and the imports of services rose by
8.8%.
According to seasonally adjusted data3
the economic growth in the first quarter of 2008 was 0.3% compared to
the previous quarter.