Hungarian Digest 1983/3 [antikvár]

áCetter to tbc (AeaderOne of the foremost objectives of the Hungarian government !s the recovery of the country's external economic balance. Following the price explosions of the Seventies, the terms of trade became disadvantageous for Hungary. This, along with certain other factors upset the earlier balance. In the midst of a world-wide recession, righting this balance is more difficult than ever. Nevertheless, there are signs and trends that point to economic recovery.During 1982, Hungary's foreign trade had to satisfy two strident demands: on the one hand, it had to fulfill its contractual obiigations to the socialist countries, while on the other, it had to show a surplus in trade with the dollaraccount nations. This was indispensable to ensure enough hard currency for the national economy. Last year, as before, trade with the Soviet Union as well as the other European CMEA countries played a definitive role in the country's economy. Trade with the Soviet Union was up by more than 10% and reached 8 billion dollars. Trade with the developed Western countries also had a deter-mining role in Hungary's foreign trade. Thirty percent of Hungary's exports and over 36% of its imports involved foreign trade with these countries. At the same time, trade with the developing nations also showed an increase with export and import trade reaching almost 2 billion dollars. Indeed, it might be of interest to list those countries which in order of importancewere most significant to Hungary's foreign trade in 1982. These were the Soviet Union, the F.R.G. and the G.D.R., Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, Iran, the USA, Prance and Rumania. As regards the year 1983, Hungarian economic policy makers are not overly optimisticdespite the fact that some con-fident predictions have appeared outside Hungary. The over-riding objective of Hungarian foreign trade this year is to increase exports and achieve a substantial surplus.THE EDITOR