The latest – third quarter of 2018 – foreign payments balance of the MNB indicate that Hungary’s foreign financing capacity was 3.4 percent of GDP, while its current account balance had a 1.9 percent surplus.
It also showed that due to the excellent financing capacity – which well exceeds the regional average – foreign debt has continued to decrease while foreign direct investments are on the rise.
The country’s current account balance – consisting of the trade balance plus cash transfers balance – has continuously been positive since 2010.
The overall foreign debt of the economy has been reduced by two percentage points to 58 percent. In the first three quarters of 2018 foreign direct investments (FDI) amounted to EUR 2.3 billion (US$2.63 billion), a significant increase from the same period of 2017.
Short-term international debt – an important measure of the country’s vulnerability to external factors – has dropped to EUR 18.2 billion (US$20.86 billion) while the country’s foreign currency reserves of EUR 23.7 billion (US$27.1 billion) remain well above safe levels.
