K&H: Despite their stable situation, slight pessimism prevails among Hungarian SMEs

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 01. 28. 12:42

The K&H SME Confidence Index, which shows the outlook for domestic SMEs, returned to its summer state in the last quarter. Based on the research results, it seems that the managers of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises are once again in a more negative mood, with the index returning to -11 points, which represents a three-point decrease compared to the previous quarter. The expectations of SMEs regarding sales and profits are also stagnant, while the proportion of those expecting rising public charges has increased. At the same time, they saw their own competitive situation as slightly better in the last quarter.

Based on the research data for the last quarter of the K&H SME Confidence Index 2024, moderate pessimism can be detected among Hungarian SME managers. The indicator currently stands at -11 points, which corresponds to the summer level. The change in mood is most noticeable among the largest company managers, with sales between 300 million and two billion forints: in their case, the indicator dropped from 5 points in the last quarter to -7, which represents a significant drop of 12 points.

SMEs are in a stable economic situation

The expectations of domestic SME managers regarding the rate of growth of their sales are not changing much. The 8 percentage point annual sales growth expectation at the beginning of 2024 has decreased to 7 percentage points in the last three quarters. Accordingly, nearly 60 percent of company managers do not expect significant changes in the next 12 months. The idea of profit growth for the next year has also stabilized in the SME sector: since the fall of 2022, it has remained in the range of 3-4 percentage points, and the average profit growth expectation has been fixed at 4 points in the last half of the year.

“The reason for the perceived bad mood despite the stable economic conditions is worth looking for in the expectations related to public charges. Nearly two-thirds of SME managers expect increasing charges. The highest proportion (nearly 70 percent) of them are the heads of medium-sized companies with sales between 100 and 300 million forints. Interestingly, however, it was not them, but the largest companies, i.e. companies with sales over 300 million, that saw the most drastic increase in the proportion of those expecting a worsening situation, by more than 10 percentage points. A rather complex economic situation has developed in Hungary, which is clearly shown by the fact that while SME managers are pessimistic about their future, many of them are still expecting an improving competitive situation in the next year”

– assessed the situation by Ildikó Oraveczné Németh, Marketing Manager of the SME and Retail Segment at K&H.
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