New orders received by Hungary's manufacturing sector in December rose 7.0 pct in volume terms from the same month of 2008, in the first yr/yr increase since July 2008, helped by base effects, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Monday.
The increase came from a low base, and mainly reflected fresh export orders but new domestic contracts were also up. In December 2008 new orders were down by more than third yr/yr, in the steepest of the drops ongoing for 17 months in a row.ű
New export orders rose 7.8 pct on the year – their yr/yr decline, which started in August 2008, was the biggest, at 37.2 pct, in December 2008. Among the important export branches, new export orders of Hungary's vehicle manufacturing industry were up yr/yr now, for the third month after new contracts fell 40–50 pct yr/yr in Q4 2008. New export orders of computer, electronic and optical product producers were still 11.5 pct below year earlier levels in December after an almost 25 pct drop in December 2008. The gap narrowed from November.
