Századvég based its research on data between 2008 and 2017, and its focus was on households’ wealth in relation to the country’s GDP. It showed that in Hungary wealth rose from 58 percent of GDP in 2008 to 105.9 percent in 2017. In comparison, Czech wealth rose from 58.7 to 80.1 percent, Slovak wealth from 30.3 to 39.1 percent and Polish from 41.6 to 65.3 percent.
To put things into perspective: Germany – where GDP per capita is US$54,987 compared with US$16,905 in Hungary, households’ wealth over the same period rose from 100.1 percent of GDP to 126.1 percent.
The think-tank said in Hungary the growth was a combined result of higher wages, rising savings and lower private debts. The research also showed that household savings also rose significantly in every country over the period under scrutiny: the increase was 24.1 percentage points of GDP in the Czech Republic, 28.9 in Poland, 28.7 in Slovakia and 29.1 in Hungary, while the same figure in Germany was 19.5.
The research also showed that household debt in Hungary were the lowest among the five countries, with debts highest in Germany, followed by Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic.
