The decrease of retail trade turnover continued

On production side, the main factor of economic growth was industry both last year and in the past period of this year.

However, the performance of the branch
– influenced by external and
internal factors – expanded at a
lower rate this year than in previous years, gross output in the
first five months rose by 7%, with considerable monthly fluctuations.
(Industrial growth exceeded 8% and 10% in the corresponding periods
of last year and 2006, respectively.) The growth rate of total sales
was down, too, as a result of the slowing increase of export sales,
while domestic sales somewhat accelerated. Data on orders in the
branches observed do not indicate a substantial upturn.

Industrial production went up by 2.2%
in May 2008 compared with the same period of the previous year, and
by 4.7% after working-day adjustment.

In January–May the volume of
production was 6.9% higher thanin the same period of the previous
year. On the average of the five months, industrial exports rose by
10%, while the volume of domestic sales was 2.8% more than a year
earlier. The highest, 21% and 30% production growths were registered
in leather industry and manufacture of wood and wood products,
respectively, each representing a small weight in production.

The decrease of retail trade turnover
continued in May, the volume of sales diminished by 2.3% (after
calendar-day adjustment by 1.6%) on the same month last year. In the
January–May period as a whole, the volume of turnover for retail
trade shops was 2.1% less than a year earlier. Stagnation was recorded in the retail trade of
shops for motor vehicles, motor vehicle parts and accessories as well
as filling stations, observed outside retail trade.

The growth rate of external trade
slowed down as well, though exports continued to expand at a higher
rate than imports, the surplus of merchandise trade increased further
in May. In external merchandise trade – according to a first
estimate – the euro value of exports and imports in May

were 6.7% and 6.2% higher than in the
same month last year. The balance of external trade showed of surplus of
47 million euros in May, which meant the improvement of the balance
by 27 million euros compared to the same month of the previous year.

In the period of January–May as a
whole the euro value of exports was up by 14%, while that of imports
by 11%. The five-month balance of external trade showed a surplus of
388 million euros, which was a 675 million euro amelioration in
comparison with the same period of the previous year.

The forint price level of external
trade in January–April rose by 1.5% in exports and by 2.6% in
imports, thus the terms of trade deteriorated by 1%.

The gross foreign debt stock of the
national economy equalled EUR105 billion at the end of March, while
net debt stock came to EUR 49 billion, which values exceeded by about
3.5 and 0.2 billion euros, respectively, those measured at the end of
2007. The increase in the value of both gross and net debt stocks was the result of
processes in the private sector, since the total debt of the general
government and the National Bank of Hungary dropped by 0.9 and 1.4
billion euros, respectively, over three months.

Food price changes were considerably
influenced by the producer price rise of agricultural products. These
were up by 35% in January– May compared with the high base in the
previous year. More specifically, the price of crop products –
hardly influenced yet by prices of products produced this year – rose
by 46%, which was largely due to the 78% and 50% price level increase
of cereals and fruits, respectively. The price rise of live animals
and animal products continued as well: the outstanding, 20% price
increase in the first five months was contributable to the 16% and
26% price rise of live animals and animal
products, respectively.