Zsolt Szalay, head of the department of automotive technologies at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), tells us how he is applying a “business mindset” to the research his AutomatedDriveLab is pioneering. The latest results have piqued the interest of China.
Elsewhere in our Business section, Attila Holoda, energy consultant and managing director of Aurora Energy, who worked at MOL for 25 years, tells us why he disagrees with the assessment of the government and the state-controlled oil and gas company that Hungary is dependent on “cheap” Russian energy. We also take a look at the senior management of Aumovio Hungary, the electronics and technology company spun off from Continental’s former Automotive group sector: Róbert Keszte, the country director; Szabolcs Tomkó, head of human resources; András Mészáros, managing director of the Veszprém factory and development center; Zoltán Dapsy, head of the Budapest plant; and Balázs Lóránd, who leads the Budapest Development Center.
In News, our Macroscope column discusses how Hungary’s industrialproduction fell sharply in November, recording the steepest monthly decline of 2025 and dropping to its lowest level in nearly five years. On a positive note, inflation continued to ease, slowing to 3.3% in December. We have commentary from János Nagy, head analyst at Erste Bank, and Péter Virovácz, a senior economist at ING.
This issue, our Special Report is dedicated to TheYearAhead, with our annual WishList detailing the wishes of the great and the good for 2026. Among our interviewees this year are János Takács, managing director at the Hungarian Dairy Research Institute (MTKI), Michael Zwecker, head of the content design office of LastPass.com, and Mihály Miklós, the founder and managing director of Marmorstein, a Budapest bakery specializing in high-quality vadkovászos (wild yeast sourdough) bread. Several of the leading players in Hungary’s commercial realestate scene share their overview of how the sector is undergoing a fundamental #transformation and what that may mean for 2026. And two of the BigFour consultancies map out how they see the year developing, with expert analysis from Tamás Vékási, country managing partner at EY Hungary, and Gábor Farkas, head of tax and legal services at PwC Hungary.
Finally, in Socialite, we look at the 22nd staging of the Verzió, Hungary’s only human rights documentary film festival, and the “business” of being an #extra (also known as a background actor) in Budapest’s booming filmindustry.
All this and more can be found in the latest print issue of the Budapest Business Journal, available from select newsstands or via our webshop HERE!
