Hungary was a charter member of Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; 1949–91). Under its aegis, trade was conducted between the countries of the Soviet bloc on the basis of specialized production, fixed prices, and barter. The Soviet Union was Hungary’s most important trading partner, but, in the late 1980s and early ’90s, as Hungary became increasingly involved in the global market, less than half of the country’s trade remained with Comecon. Unprepared for the competitiveness of global market forces, Hungary accrued a large trade deficit that was covered by foreign loans. In the process the country became heavily indebted and had to use much of its export earnings for repayment.

Nevertheless, by the mid-1990s three-fourths of Hungary’s trade was with market economies. Meanwhile, the proportion of Hungary’s imports from the former component countries of the Soviet Union fell from a peak of more than one-fifth in the early 1990s to less than one-tenth at the turn of the 21st century. In 1996 Hungary joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and in 2004 it became a full member of the European Union (EU). By the 2010s Germany had become Hungary’s most important trading partner by far. Other trading partners include Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, China, Slovakia, Italy, Romania, and the Netherlands.

In the early 21st century, machinery and transport equipment were both Hungary’s leading import (comprising three-fifths of the total imports) and its leading export (comprising one-half of all exports). In particular, the country’s principal trade goods were telecommunications equipment, electrical machinery, power-generating machinery, road vehicles, and office machines and computers.

Services

Throughout the last decade of the 20th century, the service sector’s portion of Hungary’s GDP rose at an annual average rate of about 0.5 percent. By the early 2010s, services accounted for between one-half and two-thirds of GDP and roughly the same proportion of the workforce. Tourism played a big role in this development as Hungary became an increasingly popular destination for travelers, especially those from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, most of whom arrived by car. There is also significant tourism via low-cost air carriers from western Europe as well as from the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Labour and taxation

The Soviet-style Central Council of Hungarian Trade Unions was reorganized in 1988 as the National Confederation of Hungarian Trade Unions. The largest trade union in Hungary, with some 40 organizations under its umbrella at the start of the 21st century, it became part of an even bigger organization in 2013 when it joined with the Autonomous Trade Union Confederation and the Forum for the Co-operation of Trade Unions to form the Hungarian Trade Union Confederation. That umbrella body began with some 250,000 active members and about another 100,000 pensioner members.

Transportation and telecommunications

Railways have long been the centre of Hungary’s transportation system. By World War I the country had a modern network that was among the densest in Europe, and it continued to expand regularly until the late 1970s, with electrification beginning in the previous decade. When industrial production declined during the transition to a market economy, rail transport of goods dropped sharply, accompanied by significant cutbacks in government subsidies that contributed to the deterioration of the railway infrastructure. By the end of the 20th century, however, the EU had begun funding rail network improvements, as well as roadway projects.

In the postcommunist era, road haulage has made up an increasing percentage of the overall transport of goods. Buses were once the main form of travel for passenger transportation, but the number of privately owned automobiles grew rapidly after the early 1980s. This growth skyrocketed following the end of the communist regime. Between 1989 and 1996, an additional 1.5 million cars were added to Hungarian roads, the majority of them Western-made. During this same period, the portion of Eastern-made cars declined rapidly.

Road construction and upgrading increased significantly in the early 21st century, with the building of expressways (motorways) radiating out from Budapest toward Vienna, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine.

The Danube River, the country’s only important transportation waterway, was historically used for international shipping, via the free port of Csepel. However, as a result of the destruction of bridges in the former Yugoslavia during the intervention by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in the Kosovo conflict in 1999, much of the shipping came to a sudden halt. The Hungarian merchant fleet nearly vanished, reduced from about 200 vessels in 1994 to only 1 in 1999. Nonetheless, Hungary played an active role in 21st-century regional efforts to modernize, improve, and expand inland waterway traffic on the Danube.

International air travel passes through Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport, Debrecen Airport, and Hévíz-Balaton (Sármellék) Airport. Regional passenger air traffic serves Budapest, Pécs, Nyíregyháza, Debrecen, Siófok-Kiliti, Szeged, and Győr. Malév Hungarian Airlines, the national carrier, was founded in 1946.