Early in April, new data emerged ranking countries around the world in terms of their real GDP per capita for the years 2014-2024, and now one Hungarian analyst is celebrating Hungary’s standing in fifth place in Europe and second place among Visegrad Four nations.
Géza Sebestyén, head of the Economic Policy Workshop at Budapest’s Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), celebrated the data showing just how strong Hungary’s economy has been over the past 10 years.
“What a decade! Between 2014 and 2024, real GDP per capita, i.e., the actual economic performance, increased by a third in Hungary. This means that the efficiency of domestic production has jumped to a new level,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
He then highlighted just “how great this performance is” by comparing it to other European countries. “In contrast to the Hungarian 33 percent expansion, the Austrian and German values increased by only 4 percent, the Finnish 5 percent, the British 6 percent, the Estonian 14 percent, the Czech 19 percent, and the Slovak 24 percent.”
“Of the V4 countries, only Poland was able to overtake us with its value of 44 percent,” said Sebestyén, who also added the graph created by Visual Capitalist, with values sourced from OECD.
In first place is Ireland (70 percent), followed by Poland (44 percent), Turkey (42 percent), Lithuania (38 percent), and then Hungary (33 percent). A comment by Ireland’s massive 70 percent gain notes that “GDP is distorted by profit shifting, which is when multinational companies relocate profits for tax benefits.”
In a rather poor showing, Canada’s GDP per capita grew only 1.1 percent over the 10 years, with Visual Capitalist adding that this was impacted by population growth of 16 percent, heavily influenced by higher immigration.
Statista notes that “in 2017, the Canadian government announced its aim to significantly increase the number of permanent residents to Canada in order to combat an aging workforce and the decline of working-age adults,” although those productivity gains have clearly not yet been realized. The site also says that a 2024 poll showed that “over half of surveyed Canadians believed that there were too many immigrants in the country.”
As to Hungary, Géza Sebestyén hopes growth in GDP will spill over to everyday Hungarians. “Higher GDP growth is good news because it is what creates the foundations for income growth,” he said.
