The May surplus was down from €505 million trade surplus in April but up from a €424 million surplus a year earlier.

Export volume was up 18.3% y.r/yr in May after a 16.8yr/yr rise in April, and imports grew 18.9% after a 15.9% rise in April . In euro terms, May exports rose 22.9% in twelve months at €5.701 billion after a 21.7% increase in April and imports rose 25.2% yr/yr to €5.277 billion after rising 21.1% in the previous month.

January-May exports rose 16.7% in volume terms from a year earlier and in euro terms they rose 19.1% to €27.535 billion. Five-month import volume rose 14.6% yr/yr and euro-term imports rose 16.4% to 25.290 billion in the period.

The increases follow a 18.9% euro-term drop of Hungary's exports and a 24.7% decline of imports in euro terms in 2009.

The five-month trade surplus was revised to €2.245 billion from a €2.250 billion in the first reading. The surplus in the first five months of 2010 was sharply up from €1.402 billion a year earlier. The country posted a full-year surplus of €3.98 billion in 2009.

Hungary has had a trade surplus each month since February 2009 as the 2008 autumn crisis reduced imports even more than exports.

Hungary's terms of trade improved by 0.3% in January-May from a year earlier as export prices fell 6.1% in forint terms and import prices fell slightly more, by 6.4% in forint terms. The forint strengthened about 8% against the main currencies of trade in the first five months compared to a year earlier, including a 7.7% strengthening against the euro and a 9.8% strengthening against the US dollar.

Euro-term exports has been rising yr/yr since last December after steady twelve-month declines between November 2008 and November 2009. Euro-term imports started to rise yr/yr only in January this year after uninterrupted declines between October 2008 and December 2009.

In volume terms both exports and imports has been up from a year earlier levels each month since last November. (MTI-ECONEWS)