In InnoDB everything is a transaction. If you do not begin/commit then each statement will be its own transaction. Batching a group of statements together in

In InnoDB everything is a transaction. If you do not begin/commit then each statement will be its own transaction. Batching a group of statements together in a small transaction is usually better because it reduces log flushing. ACID only needs to be guaranteed on commit. Similarly, applying transactions in parallel is faster because of group commit.