Selected economy indicators - July, August 2011

Selected economy indicators

In July, the industrial production decelerated the year on year growth, the y-o-y construction production accelerated its decline. The volume of exports grew faster than imports; the surplus of the trade balance went up. July 2011 was compared to the same month of the previous year one working day less.
In August compared with July, the m-o-m consumer prices level decreased, the inter-annual gain of prices did not change. Number of registered unemployed people went down in August, the registered unemployment remained the same inter-monthly and decreased inter-annually.

JULY 2011

INDUSTRY

The y-o-y volume of industrial production in July was higher by 4.4% really, after working day adjustment by 6.8%. The largest contribution to the overall increase, 5.4 percentage points, belongs to manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (growth by 38.4%), 0.6 p.p. brought manufacture of machinery and equipment (growth by 7.9%) and 0.4 p.p. manufacture of electrical equipment (growth of production by 7.1%). A downward effect on the growth (-0.8 p.p.) came from the drop in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply by 9.5%. The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production increased inter-monthly by 0.1%.

Sales from industrial activity at current prices increased y-o-y by 5.4%. Direct export sales grew by 15.4%, domestic sales including indirect export sales of non-industrial enterprises fell by 2.9%. The share of direct export sales in total sales of industrial enterprises made up 49.7%, which was by 4.3 p.p. more than a year ago.

The value of new orders in selected industrial CZ-NACE activities raised by 1.1% y-o-y. Non-domestic new orders increased by 8.1%, whereas domestic new orders fell by 9.4%.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 3.2% inter-annually. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 25 355 and rose by 2.0% nominally and by 0.3% really.

In January to July, compared to the same period of 2010, industrial production increased by 9.8%. Sales from industrial activity at current prices rose by 10.0%, direct export sales by 18.2% and domestic sales by 2.9%. The value of new orders grew up by 8.7%. Number of employees in enterprises with 50+ employees went up by 3.7%. The average monthly wage increased by 3.8% nominally, by 2.0% in real terms.

CONSTRUCTION

In July, the y-o-y volume of construction production went down by 11.1% in real terms. The buildings decreased by 6.4%, the civil engineering works by almost a fifth (19.9%). The construction production (after seasonal adjustment) was inter-monthly lower by 1.6%.

The construction of 2 290 dwellings started, which was by 6.2% less than a year ago. The number of completed dwellings grew by 3.4% to 1 912 dwellings.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in construction enterprises with 50+ employees went down by 7.0% y-o-y. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 30 392 and went up by 0.5% nominally but went down by 1.2% really.

In January to July, in year on year comparison, the construction production was lower by 2.7% in real terms. The buildings increased by 0.2%, the civil engineering works decreased by 8.6%. The number of started dwellings went down by 0.8%, the number of completed dwellings by more than a quarter (by 25.3%). In enterprises with 50+ employees, number of employees decreased by 4.2%. The average monthly wage rose by 0.4% nominally but fell by 1.4% in real terms.

EXTERNAL TRADE ²

In July, the y-o-y volume of exports increased by 9.3%, the volume of imports by 4.0%. The trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 14.0 bn which was inter-annually higher by CZK 10.8 bn. The trade balance with EU member states was active: it reached CZK 51.5 bn, which was about CZK 7.1 bn more than the previous year. The trade balance with non-EU countries was passive (CZK 37.5 bn), which represented a CZK 3.7 bn improvement comparing to July 2010. July trade balance has been positive since 2008; and the biggest value of surplus has been posted this year especially thanks to the growth of surplus in trade with machinery and transport equipment.

After seasonal adjustment, m-o-m volume of exports and imports increased by 3.3% and 2.0% respectively.

From January to July, exports grew by 15.7% and imports by 14.7%. The trade balance surplus of CZK 113.5 bn was higher by CZK 27.2 bn in y-o-y comparison.


AUGUST 2011

CONSUMER PRICES

In August, compared with July, total consumer prices level decreased by 0.3%. In total, prices of goods went down by 0.4%, whereas prices of services went up by 0.2%. The highest drop in prices noted Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 1.4%) and Furnishings, households equipment and maintenance (by 0.3%). On the contrary, the main component with the biggest price growth was Clothing and footwear (by 0.4%). In terms of the y-o-y comparison, consumer prices rose by 1.7% as well as in July. The price level increase was influenced mainly by Housing, water, energy and fuel (by 0.7 p.p., price increase by 2.8%) and by Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 0.6 p.p., price increase by 3.8%).

Inflation rate in August, 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 1.9%. Living costs (imputed rentals not involved) in households of pensioners rose by 3.0% for the third successive month.

The y-o-y growth of harmonized index of consumer prices in the Czech Republic (provisional data) accelerated to 2.1% in August (the Eurostat flash estimate for Euroarea HICP was 2.5%).

UNEMPLOYMENT

The registered unemployment rate (according to the Ministry of Social Affairs) did not changed in August inter-monthly and stayed at 8.2% at the end of month. The unemployment rate of men went down by 0.1 p.p. to 6.8%, the unemployment rate of women went up by 0.1 p.p. to 10.0%. Compared to the end of August 2010, the registered unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 p.p.

At the end of August, the number of unemployed people registered by labour offices fell to 481.5 thousand persons. It went down by 4.0 thousand compared to the previous month and went down by 20.0 thousand compared to August 2010. The number of unemployed new graduated students and youths went up in m-o-m comparison and their share in total number of unemployed increased by 0.8 p.p. to 5.8% (it was 5.7% at the end of August 2010). The number of free job opportunities raised in both m-o-m and y-o-y comparisons and amounted to 40.8 thousand. The number of applicants per one job opportunity was 11.8 persons, which represented inter-monthly as well as inter-annual improvement but with significant regional differences.


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: 11.08.2011
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.