hungarys economy entered recession in 2022 according to official data published tuesday as soaring energy prices drove inflation higher hungarian gdp shrank by 04 percent in the last three months of 2022 after a fall of 07 percent during the third quarter said the national statistics office ksh hungarys last technical recession  defined as at least two successive quarters of contraction  occurred in 2020 as the covid19 pandemic hit the economy the latest recession comes as hungary reels from soaring inflation which reached an euhigh of almost 26 percent in january the highest in the central european country since the mid1990s prime minister viktor orban has blamed eu sanctions against russia for the skyhigh inflation which also saw energy and food prices jump by 52 percent and 44 percent in january respectively but experts point to the distorting effect created by government price caps on food and fuel and fiscal austerity measures like cuts to household energy bill subsidies as both households and corporates were forced to cope with crippling energy prices domestic economic activity markedly slowed down said a bulletin by ing bank analysts economy minister mihaly varga quoted by the hungarian mti news agency said tuesday that the recession is a slight and temporary decrease and that growth should quickly resume in 2023 over the whole of 2022 economic activity grew by 46 percent compared to 71 percent in 2021 despite a protracted war in ukraine and sanctions hungary was still able to post annual growth in 2022 said varga adding that unemployment remained low at around four percent