Hungary has 905,324 active enterprises. Foreign-controlled firms number 16,183 of them, which is 1.8%. Those 16,183 produce 41.5% of the country's value added.

I read that twice and then opened a different table to see whether it held. It did. Employment comes to 781,079 people, or 23.3%, and turnover to 47.0%.

Four tables

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office publishes each measure separately. Collected in one place:

Measure Foreign-controlled share Year Table
Enterprises 1.8% (16,183) 2024 9.1.1.21
Turnover 47.0% 2024 9.1.1.22
Value added 41.5% 2024 9.1.1.24
Employment 23.3% (781,079) 2024 9.1.1.25

Update, 24 October 2026: HCSO published final 2024 data on 28 September 2026, and all four rows now use it. The table first mixed provisional 2024 figures for value added (40.3%) and employment (747,560, 23.0%) with 2023 figures for enterprises (15,888) and turnover (48.0%). The manufacturing figures below are updated the same way.

Correction, 24 October 2026: the text here first said turnover stopped at 2023. The HCSO turnover table dated 13 February 2026 already had a provisional 2024 figure of 46.8%.

One figure worth warning about. Secondary summaries circulate "production value 52.2%". That is an HCSO number, from table 9.1.1.23, but it is the provisional 2023 share published in February 2025. The final 2023 figure is 51.8% and 2024 is 51.1%. Production value and turnover are different lines, so the label and the year are worth checking before the number gets copied.

Correction, 24 October 2026: this paragraph first said the measure behind 52.2% was turnover, at 48.0%. HCSO publishes production value in its own table, 9.1.1.23, and its February 2025 release showed exactly 52.2% for 2023.

Manufacturing on its own

Foreign-controlled share of the Hungarian economy Foreign-controlled share of the Hungarian economy 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Enterprises 1.8% 3.9% Employment 23.3% 51.4% Value added 41.5% 63.7% Turnover 47.0% 70.6% Whole economy Manufacturing
Foreign-controlled share of the Hungarian economy Enterprises 1.8% 3.9% Employment 23.3% 51.4% Value added 41.5% 63.7% Turnover 47.0% 70.6%
  1. Whole economy
  2. Manufacturing
HCSO (KSH). All four measures are final 2024 figures.

The concentration gets sharper. Of 55,898 manufacturing firms, 2,160 are foreign-controlled, or 3.9%. That 3.9% accounts for 63.7% of value added, 51.4% of employment and 70.6% of turnover.

Roughly one in two people working in Hungarian manufacturing works for a foreign-owned company.

By country of origin, Germany dominates: 28.0% of foreign-controlled value added and 236,375 employees. The United States follows at 13.8%, then Austria at 7.9% and South Korea at 6.3%. Company-level employment and investment figures could not be verified, so none appear here.

Correction, 24 October 2026: this paragraph first gave Germany 30.5%, the United States 14.5% and South Korea 7.0%. Those shares were not in the HCSO country table. They were its amounts divided by the foreign-controlled total from table 9.1.1.24, while the table's own provisional 2024 shares were 29.6%, 14.1% and 6.8%. The sources list also numbered the country table 9.1.1.30 instead of 9.1.1.28. The figures above are now its final 2024 shares, in which Austria moves ahead of South Korea, and German-owned firms employ 236,375 people rather than the provisional 233,275.

Where the exchange rate comes in

A foreign-owned plant manufactures in Hungary and sells into the eurozone. The receipts arrive in euros. That is most of the reason a net energy importer runs a current account surplus at all, and in 2024 that surplus was 2.2% of GDP.

How much of those exports is foreign-owned is not something I can state. The HCSO tables carry turnover and value added but no export-based share, at least none I could source. The manufacturing figures make it near certain the export share is higher still, and near certain is not a number.

The same companies move money the other way. Profits earned by a Hungarian subsidiary belong to the parent. Whether they leave as dividends or are booked as reinvested earnings, the balance of payments records them as income going out, which is why the primary income balance is persistently negative.

So the 2.2% surplus is not a measure of how much Hungary earned. It is what survives after a large inflow meets a large outflow. Residuals are thin by nature.

Direction, not size

The direction is as described. The size is not something I can give, and the reason matters.

Within the primary income deficit, dividends and reinvested earnings behave differently. A dividend is paid by actually selling forint and buying euro on the market. Reinvested earnings are an accounting entry and never touch the market. The balance of payments records both as outflows, but only the first is something the exchange rate feels.

That split is not in the MNB's published data, or at least I did not find it. So this piece describes the structure and stops short of putting a number on the effect.

It never makes the news

Everything in the July report had a date attached. The 12 April election, the EU funds announcement on 29 May, the 21 July rate cut. The market moves that day and moves on.

Income outflows do not arrive that way. Dividends are resolved in spring and remitted unevenly after that. There is no headline. You find out when the quarterly statistics appear, which is also why this factor is absent from the scenario table in that report, built as it is from milestones, rate decisions and oil.

What to watch

  1. Early September, when the MNB publishes the second-quarter balance of payments
  2. Whether the spring dividend season leaves a seasonal mark on the exchange rate
  3. The point at which HCSO turns the 2024 provisional figures into final ones, and how far they move

How to read the current account surplus

None of this is written as a complaint. Foreign capital built plants and generated exports, and taking the profits is the arrangement it came for.

For reading the exchange rate, though, treating the current account surplus as evidence that Hungary earned well gets it wrong. It is the residual of two large opposing flows, and residuals move easily.

The HUF Strength Index on this site records how that shows up in the rate. It does not look ahead. How the number is built is on the methodology page.

Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any currency or asset.

Sources

Company statistics were read directly from the HCSO STADAT tables. The table numbers are in the body so the same tables can be found again. Last updated 28 September 2026.