Quarterly National Accounts of the Czech Republic

Year-on-year development of the individual GDP components at average prices of the previous year:

• Final consumption expenditure rose in real terms especially due to the growth of expenditure by households (+3.9 %); expenditure by institutions classified to the general government sector dropped by 1.6 %. In nominal terms (current prices), households spent by CZK 15.5 billion (+5.2 %) more than last year, which corresponded to the development of their disposable income (+5.5 %). Expenditure by general government increased by 6.1% primarily due to a rise in nominal wages.
• Development of gross capital formation favourably was affected by both of its components. Gross fixed capital formation increased by 9.5 % year-on-year under the dominant influence of investment in buildings and structures where the 5 %-to-19 % change in VAT anticipated by the investors may have shown itself. Inventories also increased sizeably, compared to the first quarter of 2003: by CZK 17.7 billion this year as against +CZK 11.6 billion in 2003.
• External balance of goods and services was greatly affected by the development of terms of trade. While at current prices it became favourable after a number of years (+CZK 0.9 billion), it changed for the adverse in terms of the previous year’s prices (-CZK 7.2 billion) when the deficit of trade in goods (-CZK 9.3 billion) was only partially offset by the surplus of the balance of services (+CZK 2.1 billion).