The European Commission said Hungary’s recently announced budget measures are adequate to reach the fiscal deficit target of 3.6% of GDP in 2005, but warned that economic sanctions will be reinstated if the government falters in its commitment to reduce the national deficit.
The total assets of investment funds reached a record Ft 1,553 billion at the end of June – up 6.7% on May and nearly 1.5 times as much as six months ago. New investments accounted for over three-quarters of June’s Ft 97 billion growth.
The government earmarked Ft 540.1 billion for 2,248 public procurement tenders in H1 2005. This is Ft 9.5 billion less than in the same period of 2004. Small and medium-sized companies won 57.3% of all public procurement tenders, up from 34.5% last year.

The average occupancy rate of Hungarian hotels was 66.8% in June, with guest nights up 3.5% compared to the same period last year. In the first half of the year, average occupancy was 55.7%, with guest nights up 5.5% from one year ago.

Sales of new cars and SUVs were down 9.4% in H1 compared to the same period last year. Dealers sold 94,642 new cars and SUVs in the first half, compared to 104,439 a year ago. Last year, a total of 208,044 new cars and SUVs were sold in Hungary, 0.2% fewer than in 2003.

Hungary was the fifth most popular destination for FDI in Europe last year, according to an Ernst and Young survey. Hungary received €3.4 billion, or 4.8% of total FDI in Europe, beating the likes of Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic.