Selected economy indicators - February, March 2011

Selected economy indicators

The industrial production as well as construction output continued to grow year on year. The volume of imports continued growing faster than exports; the trade balance was lower than a year ago.
In March 2011, compared with February 2011, the m-o-m consumer prices level slightly increased, the inter-annual gain of prices decelerated. Number of registered unemployed people went down, the registered unemployment rate decreased both inter-monthly and inter-annually.

FEBRUARY 2011

INDUSTRY
The y-o-y volume of industrial production in February was higher by 13.0%. The largest contribution to the overall increase, 4.7 percentage points, belongs mainly to manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, 2.0 p.p. brought manufacture of fabricated metal products (both grew by 26.2%) and 1.5 p.p. manufacture of machinery and equipment (growth by almost a fifth). A downward effect on the growth (-0.4 p.p.) came from the drop of computer, electronic and optical products (by 9.7%). The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production increased against January 2011 by 0.2%.

Revenues from industrial activity at current prices increased y-o-y by 12.3 %. Faster growth of direct export revenues by 21.5 % meant that domestic sales including indirect export revenues of non-industrial enterprises grew only by 4.5%. The share of direct export revenues in total revenues of industrial enterprises made up 49.6%, which was by 3.7 p.p. more than a year ago.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 3.5% inter-annually. Their average monthly wage reached CZK 23 552, rose by 4.0% nominally and by 2.2% really.

The value of new orders in selected industrial CZ-NACE activities raised by 12.5% y-o-y, non-domestic new orders increased by 18.2% and domestic orders by 3.0%.

In January and February, compared to the same period of 2010, industrial production increased by 14.7%. Revenues from industrial activity rose by 14.1% at current prices, and direct export revenues by 23.2%. Number of employees in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 4.0%, the average monthly wage went up nominally by 4.0%, and really by 2.2%.


CONSTRUCTION

In February, the y-o-y volume of construction output went up by 5.6% really but it still remained behind the February 2009 level by almost 20%. The building construction increased production by 11.0%, the civil engineering decreased it by 7.1%. The results were mainly affected by the low comparative base of the previous year. The construction output (after seasonal adjustment) increased by 1.1% m-o-m.

The construction of 2 095 dwellings started, which was by 14.5% more than a year ago, on the contrary the number of dwellings completed reduced by more than one-third to 2 138 dwellings.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in construction enterprises with 50+ employees went down by 1.9% y-o-y. Their average monthly wage reached CZK 25 153 and came up by 3.1% nominally and by 1.3% really.

In period of January-February the y-o-y construction output was higher by 6.9% really. In enterprises with 50+ employees the number of employees came down by 1.9% and their average wage increased nominally by 2.7% and really by 0.9%. Number of started dwellings increased by 10.5%, while the number of completed dwellings fell by 34.1%.


EXTERNAL TRADE

In February, the y-o-y volume of exports increased by 18.4%, the volume of imports grew faster for the twelfth successive month, now by 20.5% - all at current prices. The results were influenced by the low comparative base in 2010. The trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 13.7 bn in February and was lower by CZK 0.9 bn inter-annually. The trade balance with EU member states was active. It reached CZK 53.2 bn, which was about CZK 7.1 bn more than the previous year. The trade balance with non-EU countries was passive, it amounted to CZK 39.5 bn (in February 2010, the debit was better by CZK 8.0 bn). 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 went down by 2.1% and m-o-m volume of imports by 2.3%. Trends in exports and in imports raised by 0.4% and 1.0%, respectively.

In the period of January-February, exports grew by 23.3% and imports by 25.1%. Trade balance surplus of CZK 31.2 billion were higher by 1.2 bn CZK y-o-y.


MARCH 2011

CONSUMER PRICES

In March, compared with February, total consumer prices level increased by 0.1%. In total, prices of goods increased by 0.3% and prices of services decreased by 0.1%. The main components with the highest growth rate were: transport (by 0.8%, including fuel by 2.6%) and clothing and footwear (by 1.5%). On the contrary, recreation and culture noted the biggest price decrease (by 1.0%). In terms of the y-o-y comparison, consumer prices rose by 1.7% (the growth rate was by 0.1 p.p. lower than in February). The price level increase was influenced by 0.6 p.p. by higher prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 3.7%) and by housing, water, energy, fuel (price increase by 2.4%).

Inflation rate, expressed as the increase of the average consumer price index for last 12 months related to the average CPI for the previous 12 months, remained at 1.7% also in March. Living costs (imputed rentals not involved) in households of pensioners went up by 2.7%.

Consumer prices raised by 1.7% in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010. The administrative prices growth reached 4.3% and the average level of market prices went up by 1.3%.

In March, the y-o-y increase of the harmonized index of consumer prices in the Czech Republic (provisional data) stayed the third month at 1.9% (the Eurostat flash estimate for Euroarea was 2.6%).


UNEMPLOYMENT

The registered unemployment rate (according to the Ministry of Social Affairs) decreased by 0.4 percentage point in March and was 9.2% at the end of month. The unemployment rate of men went down by 0.4 p.p. to 8.6%, the unemployment rate of women went down by 0.3 p.p. to 10.0%. In comparison with the end of March 2010, the registered unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 p.p.

At the end of March, the number of unemployed people registered by labour offices decreased (547,8 thousand persons) which was by 19.1 thousand less than a month ago; compared to the same period of the previous year the number of unemployed decreased by 25.1 thousand persons. The number of unemployed new graduated students and youths went down in m-o-m comparison, their share in total number of unemployed increased by 0.1 p.p. to 6.2% (it was 6.1% at the end of March 2010). The number of free job opportunities raised in both m-o-m and y-o-y comparisons and amounted to 33.9 thousand. The number of applicants per one job opportunity was 16.1 persons, showing the 1.5 p.p. decrease intermonthly and 1.1 p.p. interannually.

The average registered unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2011 was 9.6%. It meant a decrease of 0.2 p.p. compared to the same quarter of the previous year.


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).

Published: 15.03.2011
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.