Selected economy indicators - April, May 2011

Selected economic indicators

In April, the industrial production slowed down the year on year growth, the y-o-y construction production decreased as well. The volume of exports grew slower than imports; the surplus of the trade balance went down. April 2011 was compared to the same month of the previous year one working day less.
In May compared with April, the m-o-m consumer prices level increased, the inter-annual gain of prices accelerated. Number of registered unemployed people went down, the registered unemployment rate decreased both inter-monthly and inter-annually.

APRIL 2011

INDUSTRY

The y-o-y volume of industrial production in April was higher by 4.7% really. The largest contribution to the overall increase, 3.1 percentage points, belongs mainly to manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (the growth by 17.4%), 0.8 p.p. brought manufacture of machinery and equipment (the growth by almost a tenth) and 0.6 p.p. manufacture of fabricated metal products (growth by 7.0%). A downward effect on the growth (-0.8 p.p.) came from the drop of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (by 8.3%). The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production increased inter-monthly by 0.3%.

Sales from industrial activity at current prices increased y-o-y by 6.5 %, direct export sales by 13.3 % and domestic sales including indirect export sales of non-industrial enterprises grew only by 0.6%. The share of direct export sales in total sales of industrial enterprises made up 49.4%, which was by 2.9 p.p. more than a year ago.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 3.9% inter-annually. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 25 426 and rose by 3.0% nominally and by 1.4% really.

The value of new orders in selected industrial CZ-NACE activities raised by 8.8% y-o-y. Non-domestic new orders increased by 9.3% and the value of domestic new orders by 8.2%.

In January to April, compared to the same period of 2010, industrial production increased by 10.6%. Sales from industrial activity at current prices rose by 11.3% and direct export sales by 19.1%. Number of employees in enterprises with 50+ employees went up by 3.9%. The average monthly wage increased by 3.7% nominally, in real terms by 2.0%.

CONSTRUCTION

In April, the y-o-y volume of construction production went down by 6.0% in real terms, after working days adjusting by 4.6%. The buildings decreased by 2.3%, the civil engineering works by 13.7%. The construction production (after seasonal adjustment) decreased by 2.8% m-o-m.

The construction of 2 266 dwellings started, which was by 18.2% less than a year ago. The number of completed dwellings reduced by 27.7% to 2 091 dwellings.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in construction enterprises with 50+ employees went down by 3.5% y-o-y. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 30 063 and went down by 2.3% nominally and by 3.8% really.

In January to April, in year on year comparison, the construction production was higher by 2.5% in real terms. In enterprises with 50+ employees, number of employees decreased by 2.9%. The average monthly wage went down nominally by 0.1%, in real terms by 1.8%. The number of started dwellings fell by 0.6%, while the number of completed dwellings by almost a third (32.2%).

EXTERNAL TRADE ²

In April, the y-o-y volume of exports increased by 14.8%, the volume of imports by 16.8%. The trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 12.6 bn which was inter-annually lower by CZK 1.5 bn. The trade balance with EU member states was active. It reached CZK 56.2 bn, which was about CZK 7.6 bn more than the previous year. The trade balance with non-EU countries was passive (CZK 43.6 bn), whereas in April 2010, the debit was by CZK 9.1 bn more favourable. The trade balance was positively affected mainly by growth of surplus in trade with machinery and transport equipment.

After seasonal adjustment, m-o-m volume of exports and imports increased by 1.6% and 2.2% respectively.

From January to April, exports grew by 19.9% and imports by 21.1%. The trade balance surplus of CZK 65.5 bn was higher by 4.0 bn CZK in y-o-y comparison.


MAY 2011

CONSUMER PRICES

In May, compared with April, total consumer prices level increased by 0.5%. In total, prices of goods increased by 0.8% and prices of services by 0.1%. The main components with the highest growth rate were: Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 2.1%), Alcoholic beverages, tobacco (by 1.4%) and Health (by 0.6%). On the contrary, the biggest price decrease (by 0.3%) noted Clothing and footwear. In terms of the y-o-y comparison, consumer prices rose by 2.0% (by 1.6% in April). The price level increase was influenced mainly by Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 1.2 p.p., price increase by 6.7%) and by Housing, water, energy and fuel (by 0.5 p.p., price increase by 2.1%). Price drop in Recreation and Culture helped most (by 0.2 p.p) to the total price level decrease.

Inflation rate in May, expressed as the increase of the average consumer price index for last 12 months related to the average CPI for the previous 12 months, stayed 1.8% as in April. Living costs (imputed rentals not involved) in households of pensioners went up by 2.9%.

The y-o-y growth of harmonized index of consumer prices in the Czech Republic (provisional data) accelerated to 2.0% in May (the Eurostat flash estimate for Euroarea was 2.7%).

UNEMPLOYMENT

The registered unemployment rate (according to the Ministry of Social Affairs) decreased m-o-m by 0.4 percentage point in May and was 8.2% at the end of month. The unemployment rate of men went down by 0.6 p.p. to 7.2%, the unemployment rate of women by 0.2 p.p. to 9.5%. In comparison with the end of May 2010, the registered unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 p.p.

At the end of May, the number of unemployed people registered by labour offices fell below half a million to 490.0 thousand persons (in 2010, their number was lower than half a million only in October). It went down by 23.9 thousand compared to April 2011 a by 24.8 thousand compared to May 2010. The number of unemployed new graduated students and youths went down in m-o-m comparison and their share in total number of unemployed went also down by 0.6 p.p. to 5.6% (it was 5.5% at the end of May 2010). The number of free job opportunities raised in both m-o-m and y-o-y comparisons and amounted to 37.6 thousand. The number of applicants per one job opportunity was 13.0 persons, representing both inter-monthly as well as inter-annual improvement.

This press release was not edited for language.

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¹ The indicator registered number of employees does not include: persons working under various contracts for work, working owners of enterprises and cooperating household members, who do not have contracts of employment. Data on the registered number of employees in industry (construction) also exclude agency workers, who have contracts of employment, however, not within the industry (construction).
² In ‘border statistics’ concept

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Published: 12.05.2011
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.