[31] Major industries include food processing, pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, information technology, chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, and tourism (in 2014 Hungary received 12.1 million international tourists).

Hungary's strategic position in Europe and its relative high lack of natural resources also have dictated a traditional reliance on foreign trade.

In the face of economic stagnation, Hungary opted to liberalize further by passing a joint venture law, instating an income tax, and joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

By 1988, Hungary had developed a two-tier banking system, and had enacted significant corporate legislation that paved the way for the ambitious market-oriented reforms of the post-communist years.

The external debt burden, one of the highest in Europe, reached 250% of annual export earnings, while the budget and current account deficits approached 10% of GDP.

The devaluation of the currency (in order to support exports), without effective stabilization measures, such as indexation of wages, provoked an extremely high inflation rate, that in 1991 reached 35% and slightly decreased until 1994, growing again in 1995.

In March 1995, the government of Prime Minister Gyula Horn implemented an austerity program, coupled with aggressive privatization of state-owned enterprises and an export-promoting exchange raw regime, to reduce indebtedness, cut the current account deficit, and shrink public spending.

Hungary's sovereign foreign currency debt issuance carries investment-grade ratings from all major credit-rating agencies, although recently the country was downgraded by Moody's, S&P and remains on negative outlook at Fitch.

Remaining economic challenges include reducing fiscal deficits and inflation, maintaining stable external balances, and completing structural reforms of the tax system, health care, and local government financing.

The U.S. has extended to Hungary most-favored-nation status, the Generalized System of Preferences, Overseas Private Investment Corporation insurance, and access to the Export-Import Bank.

[52] The center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum government of 1990–1994 decided to abolish agricultural co-operatives by splitting them up and giving machinery and land to their former members.

These reforms not only increased investor confidence,[59] but they were also supported by the IMF and the World Bank,[60] however, they were not welcome widely by the Hungarians; Bokros broke the negative record of popularity: 9% of the population wanted to see him in an "important political position"[61] and only 4% were convinced that the reforms would "improve the country's finances in a big way"[56] In 1996, the Ministry of Finance introduced a new pension system instead of the fully state-backed one: private pension savings accounts were introduced, which were 50% social security based and 50% funded.

However, after the elections in April 2006, the Socialist coalition under Gyurcsány unveiled a package of austerity measures which were designed to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2008.

On 27 October 2008, Hungary reached an agreement with the IMF and EU for a rescue package of US$25 billion, aiming to restore financial stability and investors' confidence.

[65] After the election in 2010 of the new Fidesz-party government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungarian banks were forced to allow the conversion of foreign-currency mortgages to the forint.

[68] From November 2011 to January 2012, all three major credit rating agencies downgraded Hungarian debt to a non-investment speculative grade, commonly called "junk status".

[72][69][70] European Commission President José Manuel Barroso wrote to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stating that new central bank regulations, allowing political intervention, "seriously harm" Hungary's interests, postponing talks on a financial aid package.

The procedures concern Hungary's central bank law, the retirement age for judges and prosecutors and the independence of the data protection office, respectively.

The surge (3.8% in the first half of 2014), however was only achieved via temporary measures and factors, such as the stepped-up absorption of EU-funds and the central bank's Funding for Growth Scheme, which subsidised loans for small-and medium-sized enterprises.

The most important crops are wheat, corn, sunflower, potato, sugar beet, canola and a wide variety of fruits (notably apple, peach, pear, grape, watermelon, plum etc.).

[97] Hungary has a tax-funded universal health care system, organized by the state-owned National Healthcare Fund (Hungarian: Országos Egészségbiztosítási Pénztár (OEP)).

Hungary is a favoured destination of foreign investors of automotive industry resulting in the presence of General Motors (Szentgotthárd), Magyar Suzuki (Esztergom), Mercedes-Benz (Kecskemét), BMW (Debrecen), BYD (Szeged), and Audi factory (Győr) in Central Europe.

[108] Daimler-Benz invests €800 million ($1.2 billion) and creates up to 2,500 jobs at a new assembly plant in Kecskemét, Hungary,[109] with capacity for producing 100,000 Mercedes-Benz compact cars a year.

The country has attracted substantial investments, including a new gigafactory by the Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) in Debrecen.

This factory is expected to produce 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery capacity annually by the end of the decade, enough to equip a million electric vehicles.

[114] The tertiary sector accounted for 64% of GDP in 2007 and its role in the Hungarian economy is steadily growing due to constant investments into transport and other services in the last 15 years.

[127] Government plans include improving the career guidance system and establishing a national digital network that will enable the tracking of jobs and facilitate the integration into the labour market.

[140][141] As most post-communist countries, Hungary's economy is affected by its social stratification in terms of income and wealth, age, gender and racial inequalities.

[158] Bribery is common in the healthcare system in the form of gratitude payment–92% of all people think that some payment should be made to the head surgeon conducting a heart operation or an obstetrician for a child birth.

The chart on the right shows forint exchange rates for the British pound (GBP), euro (EUR), Swiss franc (CHF), and the U.S. dollar (USD) from June 2008 to September 2009.