This article sets out the economic relationship between India and Hungary: annual trade figures, the goods each country sells to the other, Indian investment in Hungary, Hungarian investment in India, and the bodies and agreements that support business. It is based on the MEA brief of July 2026, which takes its trade table from KSH, Hungary's statistics office.

Trade figures

According to the MEA brief of July 2026, bilateral trade reached around USD 1.3 billion in 2024 and USD 2.4 billion in 2025. The brief gives the following yearly figures, in US$ million, with its source as KSH, Hungary:

  • 2019: Indian exports 489.6, Indian imports 254.5, total 744.1
  • 2020: Indian exports 478, Indian imports 282.8, total 760.8
  • 2021: Indian exports 582.5, Indian imports 376.2, total 958.7
  • 2022: Indian exports 790.7, Indian imports 491.0, total 1281.7
  • 2023: Indian exports 780.1, Indian imports 428.8, total 1208.9
  • 2024: Indian exports 792.90, Indian imports 495.60, total 1288.50
  • 2025: Indian exports 839.5, Indian imports 1568.4, total 2407.8
  • 2026 (January to March): Indian exports 227.8, Indian imports 718.9, total 946.7

What is traded

Major Hungarian exports to India, as listed in the brief, are machinery and mechanical appliances and parts; electrical machinery and equipment; television image and sound recorders and parts; organic chemicals; optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments; vehicles and parts; pharmaceutical products; plastics; articles of paper; and iron and steel.

Major Indian exports to Hungary are machinery and mechanical appliances and parts; organic chemicals; pharmaceutical products; electrical machinery and equipment; television image and sound recorders and parts; vehicles and parts; footwear; rubber articles; iron and steel; and plastics.

Indian investment in Hungary

The brief puts Indian investment in Hungary at approximately US$ 3.3 billion. India was the largest greenfield investor in Hungary in 2014 and the third largest in 2015.

Indian companies in Hungary named in the brief include Apollo Tyres, Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG), SMR Automotive, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Orion Electronics Ltd. and Sona BLW, as well as IT companies TCS, WIPRO, Cognizant and Tech Mahindra. Indian companies in Hungary provide employment to over 10,000 people.

Hungarian investment in India

The significant investment from Hungary has come from Richter Gedeon, the Hungarian pharmaceutical company. It has invested USD 20 million in a 51:49 joint venture with the Indian firm Themis Medicare Ltd. to produce intermediates, and the entire production is exported to Richter Gedeon in Hungary.

Economic mechanisms

The Indo-Hungary Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation provides the institutional framework for intergovernmental discussion of economic cooperation. Its 6th Session was held in Budapest on 17-18 October 2022, when the Protocol for cooperation was reviewed and signed. The brief also refers to the 5th India-Hungary Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation, held in New Delhi on 5-6 March 2018.

A Joint Business Council (JBC) of Indian and Hungarian companies was set up in 1979 under an agreement between FICCI and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce, to promote direct contact between business delegations. Its last meeting was held in Budapest in June 2016.

During Foreign Minister Szijjártó's visit in May 2022, he co-chaired an India-Hungary Business Forum with Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi, MoS for External Affairs, at which two commercial agreements were signed.

Economic agreements

The brief lists these economic and business agreements:

  • Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion (2003)
  • MoU between Council of EU Chambers of Commerce in India (CEUCCI) and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 26 June 2018, Budapest
  • Letter of Intent between Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and Hungarian Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (MAJOSZ), 5 February 2019, Budapest, to re-energise their cooperation
  • MoU on Investment Promotion between Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), 27 May 2022, New Delhi
  • MoU between Invest India and HIPA, signed at the 5th Joint Commission in March 2018 and renewed on 27 May 2022 in New Delhi as an MoU on Enhancing bilateral Investment Relations