Hungarian retail growth among European top 3

Nielsen’s quarterly European Growth Reporter survey showed that growing consumer confidence and low inflation contributed a healthy 3.7 percent growth in Europe, but Hungary continued to significantly outpace that growth rate with 7.6 percent, putting it third in Europe after Turkey and Finland.

The growth in Turkey was an exceptional 21 percent, while both Hungary and Finland achieved 7.6 percent. In Poland, retail growth was 5.9 percent while the Czech Republic was among the tail-enders with just one percent.

In Hungary, retail volume rose by 3.4 percent while the rest of the growth was on account of increasing prices. In terms of retail value, sales of chemicals rose the fastest in Hungary at a rate of 8.9 percent while food sales were up by 7.6 percent.

Nielsen Hungary said that while growth in the third quarter was 0.2 percentage point lower than in the previous quarter, growth dynamics remained strong. Given, however, that in the last quarter of 2017 Hungary posted an impressive 8.2 percent retail growth, it was unlikely that the last quarter could provide another record this year.

Despite a slight decline in the overall GDP of the 21 countries included in the Nielsen report, retail trade rose everywhere.