Hungary trade surplus reaches EUR 838 m in Feb

Hungary had a trade surplus of 838 million euros in February, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Monday. The surplus was up by 72 million euros from the same month a year earlier. Exports rose by an annual 5.0 percent to 8.524 billion euros. Imports were up by 4.5 percent at 7.685 billion euros. Takarekbank analyst Gergely Suppan said the trade data exceeded expectations, but projected the full-year surplus would fall by about 200 million euros to 7.88 billion this year, impacting GDP to a lesser degree than in 2017. Erste Bank chief analyst Orsolya Nyeste said the February data were a positive surprise, but added that import growth would likely exceed export growth from the second quarter of the year, causing the full-year surplus to fall.