According to the preliminary data of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, at the end of 2019, 836 020 enterprises operated in Hungary, 97.72% of which (817 012 enterprises) qualified as SMEs. Based on the European Commission’s data on the business economy that ensures comparability between EU member states, the number of persons employed by Hungarian SMEs somewhat exceeds the EU average. Meanwhile the value added generated by these SMEs stands slightly below the EU average.
Hungary had a significantly lower economic downturn in 2020 (-5.0%) than the EU average (- 6.2%), partly due to the economic protection measures and industry's favourable performance in comparison to the rest of the EU.
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, investment rates remained high in Hungary at 27.5% as a percentage of GDP. The pick-up in investment performance was mainly driven by real estate (+12%), public administration (+33%), education (+31%) and, partly related to the epidemic, health (+45%) branches. The high level of investment can also be the result of conditional grants to enterprises based on the implementation of projects within a limited timeframe, which may have incentivised and accelerated investment decisions from SME owners.
The share of high-tech companies in exports is high in Hungary, providing a good basis for increasing the share of high value added activities.
The unemployment rate in Hungary (4.3%) was the 5th lowest in April among EU member states. There is a strong labour market with sufficient labour market reserve for restarting the economy.
SME loans (loans up to EUR 1 million) expanded by 13.2% in 2020. The average interest rate of forint SME loans experienced a slight increase, at 2.6% by the fourth quarter of 2020. The average interest rate of high-amount HUF loans increased to 2% by the end of 2020.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic shock, venture activity experienced a strong increase throughout Europe and in Hungary in 2020 compared to the previous year. During 2020, EUR 226.3 million was invested into Hungarian companies through 236 transactions. There was a 15% increase in the total number of transactions, and 36% increase in the total invested amount compared to 2019. In 2020 the total amount of newly raised funds took a hit.
In case of Hungarian companies receiving investments, the two largest sectors by total invested amount were Financial and Insurance activities and ICT (Information and communications technology), which together accounted for 52% of total investment value and 41% of total number of investments. In 2020, the largest transactions (considering average deal size) occurred in the Financial and Insurance activities and Transportation, with average deal size of EUR 4.1 million and EUR 2.0 million respectively. The most significant difference between industry and market statistics were reported in the Financial and Insurance sector, showing a larger interest for companies operating in this sector by foreign investors. In this sector, the average deal size was EUR 4.1 million according to market statistics versus 1.4 million according to the industry statistics.
As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, the measures introduced by the Government (under the Economic Protection Action Plan) had the objective of preserving jobs and supporting businesses with liquidity problems. Since March 2020, the government mobilised in total HUF 9 500 billion through various measures to stimulate the economy, which could enter the economy by the end of 2021.
In 2020, it was decided to launch investment support programmes with an amount of nearly HUF 1 000 billion, which could lead to nearly HUF 2 000 billion development in the near future.
The Economic Relaunch Action Plan was designed to gradually ease conditions and relaunch economic activities in three phases. In the first phase, HUF 100 billion in Interest Free Restart Fast Loan were provided by the Hungarian Development Bank (MFB). The second phase focuses on strengthening higher education, and the third phase concentrates on enhancing green energy, circular economy construction and full digitisation of the economy.