Foreign-owned firms create more than 50% of value added

Bence Gaál

In 2016, foreign-controlled companies accounted for 51.4% of value added in the non-financial business economy in Hungary, the highest value in the entire European Union, according to Eurostat, the EUʼs official statistical office.

Chart: Eurostat

Hungary is followed by Slovakia (48.1%), with Luxembourg (44.6%) in third place. There are four EU Member States with shares of foreign firms providing under 20% of value added: Cyprus (13.4%), Italy (15.8%), Greece (16.3%), and France (16.4%).

Rates in the region were generally higher than the EU average: foreign companies in Poland accounted for 36.8% of value added, while the share was 43.3% in the Czech Republic, and 44% in Romania.

In 2016, some 1.2% of enterprises in the EU were foreign-controlled, accounting for 15.3% of employment and 25% of the value added in the non-financial business economy. From 2010 until 2016, the share of value added by foreign-controlled firms in the entire EU rose by 2.3 percentage points.

Gross value added per employee at foreign-owned companies in Hungary came to EUR 42,300 in 2016, Hungarian state news wire MTI reported.