ING THINK
After two months of poor performance, Hungary's industrial production registered a surprise 3.8% month-on-month expansion. As always, car manufacturing did the heavy lifting
Traditionally, industrial production in December has performed worse than in the previous two months, but this was not true in 2022. According to the raw data, industrial production rose by 2.0% year-on-year (YoY), while the rate of growth came in at 5.7% after adjusting for calendar effects. The significant difference is due to the fact that there were two fewer working days in December 2022 than in 2021. The better-than-expected yearly-based expansion is the result of a surprisingly good 3.8% increase in industrial production from November to December. In fact, growth in December was so strong that industry was essentially able to make up for the contraction it had accumulated over the previous two months and production levels returned to near September levels.