of 4.4% in 1997 and 4.6% in 1998 (Europa 1691). At the moment Hungary is concerned with economic stability. The country has fertile soils to produce a plethora of crops. Furthermore, Hungary has the natural resources of bauxite, coal, and natural gas (http://www.oacl.gov/cia/publications/factbook/nu/html). In fact, over 33% of the country’s workers are involved in the industry sector, and account for 32.9% of the GDP (Europa 1691). Notwithstanding, the largest sector is services, which accounts for 61.3% of the GDP, engaging 59% of the Country’s workforce (Europa 1691). This number is actually declining, although very slightly over the past couple of years. Moreover, Tourism accounts for a large chunk of the country’s export earnings. The main exports of Hungary are machinery and transportation equipment, and chemicals and related products. The two aforementioned commodities account for over half the country’s trade.Hungary has a large trade deficit currently of 1007 million US dollars. This is down from 1997. Most of the deficit is to Germany, which is its largest market for exports. Others include Italy, Austria, and Russia. These are Hungary’s principal trading partners. Rapid growth has been made with all the countries Hungary has opened its doors to recently. Hungary has made a multitude of steps to lowering trade barriers. These include application for the EU and NATO. Furthermore it has set up agreements with the EFTA, and was admitted to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Europa 1691).The IMF announced in early 1998 that it is taking its stand by credit arrangement away and allowing Hungary to pursue a more independent stabilization process. However, in order to do this the Hungarian government publicized that it would curtail its program for major tax reductions, in order to preserve the newfound economic stability (Europa 1691). ...
