Selected economy indicators - November, December 2011

Selected economy indicators

In November, the industrial production increased inter-annually, the construction production decelerated its decline. The volume of exports grew faster than imports and the y-o-y surplus of the trade balance went up.
In December compared with November, the m-o-m consumer prices level increased, the inter-annual gain of prices decelerated. Number of registered unemployed people went up in December, the registered unemployment rate increased inter-monthly and decreased inter-annually.

NOVEMBER 2011

INDUSTRY

The y-o-y volume of industrial production in November was higher by 5.4% really. The largest contribution to the overall increase, 3.2 percentage points, belongs to manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (growth by 17.7%), 1.0 p.p. brought manufacture of machinery and equipment (growth by 12.9%) and 0.9 p.p. electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (growth of production by 10.2%). A downward effect on the growth (-0.9 p.p.) came from the drop in manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products by 21.8%. The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production increased inter-monthly by 2.7%.

Sales from industrial activity at current prices increased y-o-y by 6.6%. Direct export sales grew by 15.0%, domestic sales including indirect export sales of non-industrial enterprises fell by 0.7%. The share of direct export sales in total sales of industrial enterprises made up 50.2%, which was by 3.7 p.p. more than a year ago.

The value of new orders in selected industrial CZ-NACE activities went up by 4.0% y-o-y. Non-domestic new orders increased by 10.6%, whereas domestic new orders fell by 6.8%.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 1.7% inter-annually. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 29 501 and rose by 2.2% nominally but fell by 0.3% really.

In January to November, compared to the same period of 2010, industrial production increased by 7.3%. Sales from industrial activity at current prices rose by 7.6%, direct export sales by 16.6%. Domestic sales did not change. The value of new orders grew up by 5.9% of which non-domestic new orders by 12.2%; domestic new orders fell by 4.0%. Number of employees in enterprises with 50+ employees went up by 3.1%. The average monthly wage increased by 3.6% nominally, by 1.7% in real terms.

CONSTRUCTION

In November, the y-o-y volume of construction production went down by 2.3% in real terms. The buildings increased by 2.8%, but the civil engineering works decreased by 11.8%. The construction production (after seasonal adjustment) inter-monthly rose by 2.1%.

The construction of 1 759 dwellings started, which was by 10.8% less than a year ago. The number of completed dwellings came down by 34.2% to 2 917 dwellings.

The average registered number of employees ¹ in construction enterprises with 50+ employees fell by 8.8% y-o-y. Their average monthly nominal wage reached CZK 33 322 and went up by 2.9% and by 0.4% really.

In January to November, in y-o-y comparison, the construction production was lower by 4.8% in real terms. The buildings decreased by 1.9% and the civil engineering works by more than one tenth (by 10.5%). The number of started as well as completed dwellings went down by 1.3% and 23.9%, respectively. In enterprises with 50+ employees, number of employees decreased by 5.7%. The average monthly wage rose by 1.6% nominally and dropped by 0.3% in real terms.

EXTERNAL TRADE ²

In November, the y-o-y volume of exports increased by 9.6%, the volume of imports by 6.3%. The trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 18.4 bn which was inter-annually higher by CZK 8.5 bn. The trade balance with EU member states was active: it reached CZK 62.4 bn, which was about CZK 5.5 bn more than the previous year. The passive trade balance with non-EU countries improved by CZK 3.0 bn in comparison with November 2010 and reached CZK 44.0 bn. November trade balance has been positively influenced 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 0.6% and 2.7%, respectively.

From January to November, exports grew by 13.4% and imports by 11,5%. The trade balance surplus of CZK 178.5 bn was higher by CZK 57.3 bn in y-o-y comparison.


DECEMBER 2011

CONSUMER PRICES

In December, compared with November, total consumer prices level increased by 0.4%. In total, prices of goods went up by 0.5% and prices of services by 0.4%. The highest growth in prices noted Health (by 2.9%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 2.0%) and Housing, water, electricity, fuel (by 0.5%). On the contrary, the main component with the biggest price drop was Clothing and footwear (by 1.8%) and Alcoholic beverages, tobacco (by 0.6%). In terms of y-o-y comparison, consumer prices rose by 2.4% (by 2.5% in November), in households of pensioners by 3.7%. The price level increase was influenced mainly by growth of prices in Housing, water, electricity, fuel (by 1.0 p.p., price increase by 3.9%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (by 0.9 p.p., price increase by 5.3%) and Transport (by 0.3 p.p., price increase by 2.9%).

Quarterly, in y-o-y comparison, the average consumer prices level increased by 1.7% in 1Q, by 1.8% in both 2Q and 3Q and by 2.4% in 4Q. The administrative prices growth reached 4.3% in 1Q, 4.0% in 2Q, 4.5% in 3Q and 6.0% in 4Q. The average level of market prices went up by 1.3% in both 1Q and 2Q, by 1.2% in 3Q and by 1.7% in 4Q.

Inflation rate in December, 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 at 1.9%. Living costs (imputed rentals not involved) in households of pensioners was higher by 3.0%.

The y-o-y growth of harmonized index of consumer prices in the Czech Republic (provisional data) went down to 2.8% in December (the Eurostat flash estimate for Euroarea HICP was 2.8%).

UNEMPLOYMENT

The registered unemployment rate (according to the Ministry of Social Affairs) increased inter-monthly by 0.6 p.p in December and was 8.6% at the end of month. The unemployment rate of men went up by 0.8 p.p to 7.7%, the unemployment rate of women by 0.3 p.p to 9.8%. Compared to the end of December 2010, the registered unemployment rate decreased by 1.0 p.p.

At the end of December, the number of unemployed people registered by labour offices went up to 508.5 thousand persons. It increased by 32.0 thousand compared to the previous month but decreased by 53.1 thousand compared to December 2010. The number of unemployed new graduated students and youths fell in m-o-m comparison and their share in total number of unemployed dropped by 0.5 p.p. to 6.6% (it was 6.3% at the end of December 2010). The number of free job opportunities fell down in m-o-m comparison but went up reaching 35.8 thousand inter-annually. The number of applicants per one job opportunity at the end of December was 14.2 persons. This represented an inter-monthly worsening and a significant inter-annual improvement, however with persistent regional disparities.

In 1Q – 4Q 2011, the average registered unemployment rate was 8.6%. In individual quarters, it made up 9.6% in 1Q, 8.5% in Q2 and 8.1% in both 3Q and 4Q.


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.

Published: 13.12.2011
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.