Selected economy indicators - June, July 2011

Selected economic indicators

In June, the industrial production decelerated the year on year growth, the y-o-y construction production decreased again. The volume of exports grew faster than imports; the surplus of the trade balance went up.
In July compared with June, the m-o-m consumer prices level increased, the inter-annual gain of prices decelerated. Number of registered unemployed people went up in July after 6 months, the registered unemployment rate increased inter-monthly and decreased inter-annually.

JUNE 2011

INDUSTRY
The y-o-y volume of industrial production in June was higher by 7.4% really. The largest contribution to the overall increase, 3.1 percentage points, belongs mainly to manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (growth by 17.2%), 1.5 p.p. brought manufacture of machinery and equipment (growth by 18.3%) and 0.9 p.p. manufacture of electrical equipment (growth of production by 14.8%). A downward effect on the growth (-0.5 p.p.) came from the drop in manufacture of food products by 9.5%. The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production decreased inter-monthly by 1.9%.

Sales from industrial activity at current prices increased y-o-y by 6.0 %; direct export sales by 12.6 % and domestic sales including indirect export sales of non-industrial enterprises remained at the level of June 2010. The share of direct export sales in total sales of industrial enterprises made up 50.6%, which was by 3.0 p.p. more than a year ago.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 3.4% inter-annually. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 25 560 and rose by 4.1% nominally and by 2.3% really.

The value of new orders in selected industrial CZ-NACE activities raised by 5.0% y-o-y. Non-domestic new orders increased by 11.8%, whereas domestic new orders fell by 5.2%.

In H1 2011, compared to the same period of 2010, volume of industrial production increased by 10.8%, but the growth decelerated from 12.7% in Q1 to 9.1% in Q2. Sales from industrial activity at current prices rose by 10.8%, direct export sales by 18.4% and domestic sales including indirect export sales of non-industrial enterprises by 4.2%. The average number of employees in enterprises with 50+ employees went up by 3.8%. The average monthly wage increased by 4.2% nominally, in real terms by 2.4%.

CONSTRUCTION

In June, the y-o-y volume of construction production went down by 6.3% in real terms. The buildings decreased by 2.7%, the civil engineering works by 12.4%. The construction production (after seasonal adjustment) was inter-monthly lower by 0.2%.

The construction of 2 342 dwellings started, which was by 4.3% less than a year ago. The number of completed dwellings reduced by 16.9% to 1 279 dwellings.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in construction enterprises with 50+ employees went down by 4.7% y-o-y. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 28 222 and went down by 2.7% nominally and by 4.4% really.

In H1 2011, in year on year comparison, the volume of construction production was lower by 1.3% in real terms (it grew by 7.0% in Q1 whereas it went down by 5.7% in Q2). The production went up by 1.9% in the buildings in H1, whereas the civil engineering works production of H1 was lower by 8.0%. In enterprises with 50+ employees, number of employees decreased by 3.4%. The average monthly wage went up nominally by 0.5%, in real terms went down by 1.3%. The number of started dwellings slightly grew by 0.1%, while the number of completed dwellings fell by 28.6%.

EXTERNAL TRADE ²

In June, the y-o-y volume of exports increased by 9,6%, the volume of imports by 5.5%. The results were mainly affected by the high comparing level of the last year. The trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 17.6 bn which was inter-annually higher by CZK 9.5 bn. The trade balance with EU member states was active: it reached CZK 57.5 bn, which was about CZK 6.7 bn more than the previous year. The trade balance with non-EU countries was passive (CZK 39.9 bn), which represented a CZK 2.8 bn improvement comparing to June 2010. 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 decreased by 0.3% and 1.7% respectively.

In H1 2011 volume of exports and imports went up by 17.6% and 17.4%, respectively . The trade balance surplus amounted to CZK 97.7 bn and was higher by CZK 16.9 bn than in H1 2010. In Q1 volume of exports increased by 21.5% and imports by 22.2%, in Q2 the increase reached 14.1% and 13.1%, respectively. The trade balance surplus amounted to CZK 53.8 bn in Q1, in Q2 it was CZK 43.9 bn. Compared inter-annually to Q1 and Q2 of 2010, the surpluses were higher by CZK 6.5 bn and by CZK 10.4 bn, respectively.


JULY 2011

CONSUMER PRICES

In July, compared with June, total consumer prices level increased by 0.3%. In total, prices of goods went down by 0.2%, whereas prices of services went up by 0.8%. The highest growth rate noted Recreation and culture (by 3.3%) and Alcohol and tobacco (by 1.0%). On the contrary, the main component with the biggest price decrease was Clothing and footwear (by3,0%). In terms of the y-o-y comparison, consumer prices rose by 1.7% (by 1.8% in June). The price level increase was influenced mainly by Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 0.8 p.p., price increase by 4.4%) and by Housing, water, energy and fuel (by 0.7 p.p., price increase by 2.8%). Price drop in Recreation and culture (by 0.2 p.p) helped most to the total price level decrease.

Inflation rate in July, 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 the level of 1.9%. Living costs (imputed rentals not involved) in households of pensioners went up by 3.0% as in June.

The y-o-y growth of harmonized index of consumer prices in the Czech Republic (provisional data) stayed at 1.9% in July (the Eurostat flash estimate for Euroarea HICP was 2.5%).

UNEMPLOYMENT

The registered unemployment rate (according to the Ministry of Social Affairs) increased m-o-m by 0.1 percentage point in July and was 8.2% at the end of month. The unemployment rate of men went down by 0.1 p.p. to 6.9%, the unemployment rate of women went up by 0.4 p.p. to 9.9%. In comparison with the end of July 2010, the registered unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 p.p.

At the end of July, the number of unemployed people registered by labour offices rose to 485.6 thousand persons. It went up by 6.8 thousand compared to June 2011 and went down by 19.7 thousand compared to July 2010. The number of unemployed new graduated students and youths slightly went up in m-o-m comparison and their share in total number of unemployed went also up by 0.1 p.p. to 5.0% (it was 4.9% at the end of July 2010). The number of free job opportunities raised in both m-o-m and y-o-y comparisons and amounted to 38.9 thousand. The number of applicants per one job opportunity was, as well as at the end of June, 12.5 persons, which represented 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: 14.07.2011
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.