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The Hungarian economy grew by 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, and such quarterly rate has been unprecedented since 2005. The Hungarian GDP growth rate according to the EU methodology is double the EU average, one of the fastest in the CEE region. This is the zenith; the growth rate will slow down. The rate of increase in investments financed by pre-payments of EU transfers and in household consumption, boosted by the elections as well, is expected to slow down during the rest of the year. In addition, a slight deterioration is expected in external demand as well. Based on the better than expected figures of the second quarter, GKI raised its GDP forecast for 2018 to 4.2 per cent from 4 per cent and its investment forecast to 12 per cent from 9 per cent. However, it expects a marked slowdown in 2019, a growth rate of around 3.2 per cent. External equilibrium is likely to remain very favourable in 2019, inflation is expected to accelerate, and fiscal and monetary policy tighten only slowly. Possible corrections of economic policy will hardly affect the substance of the one-centred Hungarian political model.

You can download the forecast from here.

The archive of earlier forecasts is available here.

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