The only certain thing about life…

…is uncertainty. This sentence is perhaps truer now than ever before. Nobody knows what to expect. Although “the end of the world” that had been predicted for late last year finally didn’t occur, what we see now is that every month is different than we expect it in the FMCG market. January’s surprise was that sales developed nicely, February surprised us with the continuation of this positive trend, and then came March and the unexpected fact that volume sales plunged and shoppers began downtiering in large numbers. In April the big shock was that even premium consumers were standing in front of the shelves in shops, wondering whether to buy a certain product or not…

Obviously everyone is eager to know when things will take a positive turn. We would like to know when the prices will begin to drop and the inflation will start to slow down, making the market more predictable.

Oh yes, and we should be able to tell all of the above without using a crystal ball…

Unfortunately we don’t know the answers to these questions, so we decided to ask a few people who may know them. In the afternoon of 25 May we are going to organise the Business Meetup and Dinner, where the keynote speaker will be the famous economic expert Nenad Pacek, who will speak for an hour about the events that are likely to happen in the near future. He will be followed by Lenneke Schils and Mária Törőcsik on the podium, analysing consumption trends and consumer behaviour. Minister Tibor Navracsics, deputy state secretary Beáta Olga Felkai, and deputy governor of the Central Bank of Hungary (MNB) Mihály Patai will gather for a roundtable, where they will discuss not only the topics on the agenda, but will also answer questions about the way the Hungarian economy is going, and about the plans of the government and their possible impact.

The second half of the year isn’t far away either… A lot of factors are moving precariously and meanwhile there are unexpected regulatory changes as well. It isn’t easy to be prepared all the time in these conditions, making the right decisions and acting flexibly – but this is the environment in which we must do our best. All things considered, we think it is a good decision to sail with the Trade Fleet in the second half of the year, at the Business Days conference.

You can read the details about both programmes on the following pages. We would like to contribute to your business success with lots of useful information.

Best regards,

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2023/5