In January 2005 the Figyelő, the MKIK Economic and Business Research Institute (IEER), and the Volksbank jointly launched research into the business situation of small and medium sized enterprises, along with an investigation into their short term expectations as well as an assessment of the economic and institutional factors affecting their business situation. Our analysis is based on the quarterly survey results of a total of 300 companies operating within the manufacturing, construction and services sectors. The structure from quarter to quarter remains the same and is representative of the economic performance and sector distribution of companies operating in Hungary.

The latest results show that almost one-third of business partners from the small and medium sized enterprises surveyed regularly paid late: in January 2012 the average rate of partners paying late compared to the previous six months was 32%, that is, this rate has declined since July 2011. The full value of late payments comes out to be 33% of total sales, so overall we can say that the breadth and depth of late payments at the beginning of 2012 was less than that of the previous half year.

We found that there was a significant increase in the past year of those small and medium enterprises negatively affected by the economic crisis. While in January 2012 34% of companies felt that the crisis will have a major or at least significant effect on their business situation over the next six months, in January 2011 23% of SMEs felt this way, whereas two years ago this was 27%; in other words, the impact of the economic crisis among businesses has once again increased.

Based on the responses of firms in 2011 the gross wages paid to employees increased by an average of 3.8%. Taking into account the 3.9% annual inflation rate from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) for the year 2011, the real wages of employees within the SME sector fell minimally last year. According to our recent survey results CEOs are planning to increase gross wages in 2012 by an average of 5.7%.