According to a recent study – made in the co-operation of Ernst & Young and the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research –, 30 % of the Hungarian top managers would not reject a bribe offer. This is only one statement from the research which studied the attitudes of top managers toward corruption and the institutional corruption risks.

The Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research - in collaboration with the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy - conducted a research on the expected demand of labour and short-term business expectations of 7550 enterprises this year.

Results show recession made a strong negative mark on the labour market during 2009. The turning-point in economic growth did not mean a turning-point in the labour market: employment rates continuously dropped during 2009 and there was only a slight increase in Q2 2010. Indicators show that business climate and anticipations of enterprises are continuously increasing since the second half of 2009 and by now they reached their pre-recession value. However, the tendency that anticipations for the near future are deteriorating reveals that the positive tendencies are very fragile and the way out of the recession might take a long time.

The results of our labour market prognosis show that anticipations of enterprises are more sanguine than last year. Export-oriented, wholly foreign-owned enterprises in the service industry are the most optimistic. The demand for labour of skilled workers and graduated professionals has increased compared to last year and a continuous demand can be anticipated for the next year as well.

According to the latest estimates from IEER, the macroeconomic situation of the SMEs was more favorable in Q3 2010: there was a 1.6% increase in the GDP compared to the same period previous year and a 0.8% increase compared to the previous quarter (Q2 2010).

Latest dataset of HCCI IEER (from October 2010) on SMEs indicates that the conjuncture indicator followed the positive changes prevalent in the macroeconomic conditions. There was similar levels of increase in the values of all – either former or present – conjuncture indices in Q3 2010.

The positive perceptions on the present situation, however, do not contribute to positive short-term expectations: the values of all the indicatiors deteriorated during the last three months except the perceptions on profitability that stagnated and the pre planned rate of investment activity that actually grew.

Overall, the SME Conjuncture Index has shown slightly increasing tendencies in Q3 2010, and reached its peak value since July 2008. However, there has been an increase in the dispersion of SMEs' opinions on the future expectations comparing to the previous quarter (Q2), which implies the tendency of growing heterogenity in the future expectations of SMEs' throughout 2010.

The survey on the perspective of enterprises about the recession had been repeated for the third time by the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research.We provide analysis not only on the general characteristics of enterprises and different indicators of conjecture, but also on borrowings, foreign currency risks and financial disciplines of enterprises and the preventive actions they took in order to avoid the negative effects of the recession. Moreover, we had interest in mapping the internet usage habits at Hungarian enterprises. The three datasets are available free of charge at the following web addresshttp://www.ola.gvi.hu/.

The results of the analysis revealed that the Hungarian enterprises did not change their developed techniques and actions in order to avoid the negative effects of the recession. Companies with foreign ownership share and export-oriented companies are usually very adaptive to the new conditions than other companies. Also, there is a strong correlation between the business situation and the adaptation skills: the worse the business situation of an enterprise the broader the range of techniques it adapts to avoid the worst case scenario.

The analysis also reveals that one part of the enterprises were so extensively affected by the recession that they were technically forced to find every possible way to reduce the negative effects. Favorable business situation thereby facilitates long-term strategic planning and action, while bad business situation makes short-term downsizing and production restraint more probable. We also tried to prove our surmise that those companies who use internet actively will be more likely to have a faster recovery from the recession but this hypotheses could not be fully tested and measured by solely relying on data about the business situation of enterprises.

The findings based on the three datasets were presented in English at CIRET Conference, Economic Tendency Surveys and the Services Sector on the 14thOctober 2010. See also (https://www.ciret.org/conferences/newyork_2010).The analysis, the power point slides and the survey of the research (from March and June) can be found and downloaded in the appendix.

This is the 26th time that the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research conducts a survey on the business climate among Hungarian enterprises. The survey relies on the answers of 1300-2000 managers and measures their opinion twice a year, every April and October and as such it gives the most extended sample of enterprises in Hungary among the similar business tendency surveys. Our research is part of an Eurochambres survey involving 14 million enterprises.

This time, our database consists the answers of 1869 managers. After the turning-point last October, the anticipations of Hungarian enterprises are continuously ameliorated by April and by October as well: the indicators seem still to be in positive range. However, if we compare our latest results with the findings from April 2010, there can detect only moderated positive tendencies in the anticipations for the near future. While the IEER Business Climate Index stayed at -9% last October, and in April it reached its peak at +14.8%, by October it dropped again and now stays at 10.4%.

The research program "Vocational schools" by IEER conducted since 2008 includes two main parts. The aim of the company survey is to map the demand of specific segments in the business sector for vocational school graduates within one year and beyond a three-year time span.

The survey on graduates examines the beginning of the working life of those young people who obtained their qualifications in vocational schools or trade schools 19 months before. The research has a focus point on whether these young people were able or willing to enter the labour market during the 19 months after their graduation.

According to the latest estimates, there was a set-back in the continuous amelioration of GDP in Q2 2010 that might have gotten prolonged the way of the Hungarian economy out of the recession. This temporary stagnation does not affect the different sectors in economy though: the total value both consists favorable values from the trade sector and gruesome data from the building industry.

The SME Conjuncture Index has shown only slightly increasing tendencies in Q2 2010 - its value in July is 0,0231 while in April it was 0.0251, whereas the value of Business Uncertainty Index has significantly increased by 0.41. Our results also report on a more and more frequently appearing phenomenon, the chain indebtedness: more than half of our respondents acknowledged that late payments affected them in the last 6 months. Our data set from June 2010 also reveals the fact, that small and medium enterprises estimate the interval for 13 month they would need for a complete recovery from the economic recession.

Our latest survey in the SME Outlook – conducted in April 2010 – focused not only on the business situation of SMEs, but also on their experiences about late payment and the extent of chain indebtedness, as well as about their habits of internet usage.

Our latest survey in the SME Outlook – conducted in January 2010 – focused not only on the business situation of SMEs, but also on their experiences about late payment and the extent of chain indebtedness, as well as about the effects of financial crisis on the SME sector.

This is the 25th time that the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research conducts a survey on the business climate among Hungarian enterprises. The survey relies on the answers of 1300-2000 managers and measures their opinion twice a year, every April and October. This time, our database consists the answers of 1640 managers.

Business anticipations of Hungarian enterprises positively changed according to the results of the latest IEER Business Tendency Survey. After the turning-point last October, the anticipations of Hungarian enterprises are continuously ameliorating. While the IEER Business Climate Index stayed at -9% last October, now it shows +14.8%.