The role of agriculture in the national economy based on symmetric input-output table

Kemény, Gábor – Lámfalusi, Ibolya – Tanító, Dezső

Keywords: agribusiness, agriculture, food industry, production multiplier

Agribusiness is a strategic sector of the Hungarian national economy. This strategic role is supported firstly by the contribution to the macroeconomic performance. The weight of the agricultural economy and the closely related sectors on output, GDP and employment is 15.65, 11.4 and 14.2 per cent respectively. Secondly, the strategic role is manifested in the interaction of agriculture and food industry with other sectors, which is supported by their remarkable production multiplier. These indicators exceed the production multiplier of some industries that can be considered as the engine of the domestic economy such as building industry, manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products or manufacture of transport equipment. Thirdly, the strategic role is manifested in the stabilising role of agribusiness. The constant volume of food consumption and the constant spending level on food do not allow dynamic growth in the sector. In turn this assures protection from larger declines and provides a relatively constant performance that during crisis periods has a critical importance for the whole economy, as Hungary experienced in 2011.

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