Services
GLOBAL COVERAGE
- ARGENTINA
- BRAZIL ECONOMICS
- BRAZIL POLITICS
- CAUCASUS / CENTRAL ASIA
- CENTRAL AMERICA
- CHILE
- CHINA
- CHINA ADVISORY
- CHINA FINANCIAL
- COLOMBIA
- DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
- ECUADOR
- GULF COUNTRIES
- HUNGARY
- INDIA
- INDONESIA
- ISRAEL
- JAMAICA / BAHAMAS
- KAZAKHSTAN
- MEXICO
- NIGERIA
- PANAMA
- PERU
- PHILIPPINES
- POLAND
- RUSSIA ECONOMICS
- RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS
- SOUTH AFRICA
- TURKEY
- UKRAINE
- VENEZUELA
Events
Databanks
-
Argentina databank May 28 -
Brazil Economics databank May 19
-
Central America databank May 28
-
Chile databank May 27
-
China databank Mar 21
-
Colombia databank May 12
-
Dominican Republic databank May 21
-
Ecuador databank May 23
-
Gulf Countries databank May 30
-
Hungary databank May 20
-
India databank Apr 28
-
Mexico databank May 12
-
Panama databank May 13
-
Peru databank Apr 28
-
Philippines databank May 8
-
Poland databank Apr 29
-
Russia Economics databank May 12
-
South Africa databank May 6
-
Turkey databank Apr 24
-
Ukraine databank May 12
-
Venezuela databank May 5
NEWS FLASH
WEBINAR - LATIN AMERICA: FISCAL PRESSURES AND POLITICAL SHIFTS...
COUNTRY INSIGHTS
No policy change at today's Monetary Council, as expected
HUNGARY · In Brief · 27 May 2025
The base rate remains at 6.5%, and the interest rate corridor has also been left at 5.5-7.5%. The Council expect headline CPI-inflation close to (meaning not a lot above) the target range. They continue to aim at maintaining the stability of financial markets (in our reading this primarily means ...
Good news, bad news: a brief update to last week's monthly report
HUNGARY · In Brief · 26 May 2025
Our latest monthly report was released on May 20. Here follows a list of the most important items, which have shown up since then.1. In the report, we wrote of the decelerating trend of nominal wage growth, which is good news for inflation but bad news for growth. We referred to the fact that by ...
Improving price stability but no good prospects for GDP
HUNGARY · Report · 20 May 2025
Energy prices remain favorable for importers such as Hungary, especially regarding crude oil. We still consider the occasionally repeated US threat of retaliatory tariffs on those who buy Russian energy as unlikely to materialize. However, an alternative plan by the EU to end all purchases of Rus...
Disappointing CPI data for April: cap on retail margins did not work quite as suggested previously
HUNGARY · In Brief · 09 May 2025
The headline rate was 0.2% mom, 4.2% yoy, the latter down from 4.7% yoy in March, core inflation was 0.1% mom, 5% yoy, also down from 5.7% yoy in the previous month: So, it looks like the spike seen in the first two months of this year has been overcome, both headline and core fell neatly, and th...
April CPI out tomorrow: prepare for the headline rate deeply below 4%
HUNGARY · In Brief · 08 May 2025 · 1 response
The headline rate went up to 5.6% yoy in February, from where it came down to 4.7% yoy in March. Against that, a further drop to below 4% in April may look extraordinary. But circumstances are extraordinary, too. For one thing, fuel prices (7.3% of the CPI basket) dropped substantially again in A...
US, EU trade policy measures work against economic growth in Hungary
HUNGARY · In Brief · 07 May 2025
Well, this looks like a series of unfavourable news now. Here is a list of what we mean: 1. A few days ago, Mr. Trump's 25% tariffs on the imports of car components took effect, following a similar measure on the imports of complete cars, implemented one month earlier. Naturally, these moves affe...
Administrative price regulation will most likely be extended and broadened after end-May
HUNGARY · In Brief · 03 May 2025
Economy Minister Nagy has made a considerable number of public appearances on the existing administrative price regulation applied to the retail prices of certain food items recently. The summary of his statements must be as follows, we think: - The limitation of the retail price margins used at ...
Negative GDP growth reported for Q1
HUNGARY · In Brief · 30 Apr 2025
Preliminary, seasonally and day-adjusted GDP data shows -0.2% qoq, -0.4% yoy real growth for Q1, as reported this morning. This came after +0.6% qoq, +0.1% yoy in Q4, and 0.5% growth in full-year 2024. In an unusually brief statement, KSH only said that Q1 growth was supported by services but hel...
Fiscal cost of election campaign spending increases
HUNGARY · In Brief · 29 Apr 2025
The other day, Economy Minister Nagy confirmed that the members of armed services (soldiers, policemen, etc., about 100k people) will be entitled to another one-time bonus payment, equal to 6-month worth of salaries, in February next year, and that the government are going to earmark some HUF450b...
Non-interest central government cash deficit down in Q1
HUNGARY · In Brief · 24 Apr 2025
Two days ago, when we released our new quarterly forecast report, we were still unable to give any breakdown of the Q1 cash balance of the central government, because the respective official data had not been published yet. So we could not present how exactly the annualised cash deficit ratio ros...
Past Liberation Day: a few changes to growth and inflation forecasts
HUNGARY · Forecast · 22 Apr 2025
The world has changed quite a bit since we published our previous forecast in January, because of Mr. Trump’s appearance on the scene, and especially his latest aggressive trade policy measures. The latter are pushing the global economy towards lower growth but also lower energy prices, both extr...
S&P changed the outlook for its BBB- sovereign credit rating to Negative from Stable
HUNGARY · In Brief · 13 Apr 2025
This happened at this year's first pre-set review date for Hungary, as regards any of the top three rating agencies: At the same time, S&P affirmed its BBB- credit rating, but even so, the agency's decision pushed Hungary to the very brink of losing its investment grade credit rating. S&P lowered...
New MNB vice governor and Monetary Council member proposed by PM Orbán
HUNGARY · In Brief · 11 Apr 2025
Parliament's economic committee is scheduled to hear Mr. Zoltán Kurali (left on the picture below, standing next to governor Varga) on Tuesday next week. Mr. Kurali has been nominated by PM Orbán for the position of vice governor in the MNB. At present, the MNB has three vice governors: Barnabás ...
Good news on inflation at last: inflation fell more than expected in March
HUNGARY · In Brief · 08 Apr 2025
The headline rate was 0% mom, 4.7% yoy, down from 5.6% yoy in February, core inflation was 0.3% mom, 5.7%, down from 6.2% yoy, non-fuel inflation was 0.3% mom, 5.2% yoy, down from 5.6% yoy: Note: year-on-year changes in percent; Sources: KSH, own estimates Importantly, analysts expected the headl...
Both retail sales and industrial output followed their respective trends in February
HUNGARY · In Brief · 07 Apr 2025
Retail sales fell by 0.6% mom, but it grew by 3.3% yoy, in volume terms, in February. The fixed-base chart (Dec 2010 = 100, source: KSH), suggests that it was a correction after January's outstandingly robust result, back to an otherwise significantly increasing trend: So, the trend of strengthen...