Hungary joined the Czech Republic in falling into a
technical recession in the second half of 2022 as high inflation
prompted households to curb spending.
Economic activity is expected to remain sluggish in the
first part of this year, and industrial output data in January
reflected this.
In Slovakia, the economy maintained growth in the fourth
quarter, data confirmed on Tuesday, with a 0.3%
quarter-on-quarter expansion.
In year-on-year terms, the euro zone member country grew
1.1%, in line with an earlier flash estimate, but the slowest
growth rate in seven quarters, the statistics office said.
Still-growing household consumption, despite high inflation,
was a bright spot in the data.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Krisztina Than in
Budapest; editing by Jason Neely)
March 7 (Reuters) - Hungarian industrial production fell
at the start of 2023 while Slovakia's economy grew at its
slowest year-on-year pace in seven quarters to end 2022 as
economic momentum stumbles in central Europe amid soaring
inflation and weakening demand.
Hungary's output declined by an annual 0.2% in January,
based on preliminary unadjusted data from the Central Statistics
Office (KSH) on Tuesday. That was well below analyst forecasts
for a 5.0% increase.
Adjusted for the effect of working days, output dropped by
3.2% year on year, while in monthly terms, it shrank by 5.1%,
the KSH said.
Janos Nagy, an analyst at Erste Bank, said the
month-on-month drop was the biggest since the COVID pandemic,
adding halts in some car production because of parts supply
issues, such as at Czech carmaker Skoda Auto, part of the
Volkswagen Group, was having an impact.
"In the coming period, moderate European output can be a
determining factor with respect to Hungarian output," he said.
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