Seasonally and working-day adjusted GDP rose by five percent in the third quarter of the year, according to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office. Compared with the previous quarter growth was 1.2 percentage points higher, while for the first nine month of the year it was 4.7 percent.
“There hasn’t been higher growth than this in the past ten years, which is a clear indication that everything is given for a full-year growth above 4 percent,” Varga said.
He said recently the European Commission increased its forecast for Hungarian GDP growth this year to 4.3 percent, meaning that both domestic and international analysts expect growth to exceed four percent, which is also the government’s expectation.
Varga said full year growth would likely be in the 4.3-4.5 percent range. K&H Bank analyst Dávid Németh said the data was surprising because after a strong showing in the second quarter of the year most analysts expected a slowdown in the third quarter. The surprisingly good figure was probably due to a continued strong performance in services.
Takarékbank analyst Gergely Suppán said that in light of the latest figure the bank would probably increase its full-year forecast to 4.8 percent from the current 4.6 percent and to 4.2 percent next year from 4.1 percent.
