The political and economic changes that took place before nearly quarter of a century of the fall of the Soviet Union and the socialist system in Eastern Europe had formed a radical shift in the trend of politics and economics, which have acted by the successive Hungarian governments since then. The market economy dominated over the economy directed by the Communist Party, the trade and economy were liberalized internally and externally.

 

The Hungarian economy is now based mainly on the services sector (two-thirds of GDP) and industry (24%), followed by the agriculture sector (4.4%) and construction (4.3%). In addition, the automotive and the related industries occupy advanced positions within the industry sector, where German companies (Mercedes, Audi and Opel) and Japanese (Suzuki) provide the large investment in this area.

 

Immediately after the start of the transformation process, the foreign investment, especially Western ones, began to flow over Hungary. Its accumulated value since then reached more than 80 billion euros. The largest foreign investors in Hungary come from Europe and the United States, Japan, Korea, China, Russia and other countries of the world. The major share of the European investment in Hungary belongs to companies from Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland.

 

The foreign investment funds have been pumped, as well as into the automotive industry, into the chemical industry and medicine, the areas of communications and logistics, banking and information services. The foreign investments provide in this east European country more than half of the jobs, amounting to a total 4.1 million jobs.

 

Hungary is seeking actively to attract more foreign investment, especially investment in the field of road construction, modernization of hospitals and medical centers and all the infrastructure works of the bridges, sanitation and drinking water, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry, and in the area of services, such as real estate markets.