External Trade of the Czech Republic
Commentary | Contents |
External trade in September 2004
Trade balance in surplus
According to preliminary data, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 1.2% and imports rose by 3.6% month-on-month.
In terms of year-on-year comparison, current price exports and imports were 20.8% and 18.7% up, respectively. Due to the appreciation of the Czech koruna against the US dollar and against the euro, external trade grew faster both in terms of US dollars (exports +34.6% and imports +32.3%) and in terms of euros (exports +23.7% and imports +21.5%) than external trade valued in Czech korunas.
The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 3.2 billion, which amounted to a y-o-y improvement of CZK 2.7 billion. This is the highest surplus recorded in September in the last decade and the second highest surplus in 2004 (CZK 4.1 billion in February). Balance with EU member states reached a surplus of CZK 20.7 billion, balance with non-EU states ended in a deficit of CZK 17.5 billion. A marked improvement occurred particularly in trade in ’machinery and transport equipment’ (by CZK 6.4 billion), whereas the deficit of trade in ’mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ considerably increased (by CZK 2.7 billion).
The favourable development in ’machinery and transport equipment’ was primarily affected by improved balance of trade in electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances (by CZK 2.9 billion), telecommunications equipment (by CZK 2.0 billion), road vehicles (by CZK 1.7 billion) and general industrial machinery and equipment (by CZK 1.4 billion). A lower deficit was observed for the balance of trade in ‘chemicals and related products’ (by CZK 1.2 billion), due to a more favourable balance of trade in medicinal and pharmaceutical products, organic chemicals and plastics.
Deficit of trade in ’mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ grew, affected mainly by a higher deficit of trade in petroleum and petroleum products (by CZK 3.4 billion). Petroleum imports increased by 87.7% in terms of value and by 59.1% in terms of volume, being thus the second highest in 2004. In September 2003, petroleum imports were very low. At the same time, deficit of trade in natural gas fell slightly (by CZK 0.6 billion). Surplus of trade in ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material‘ decreased by CZK 1.8 billion, predominantly due to a worse balance of trade in iron and steel (the CZK 0.1 billion surplus turned into a deficit of CZK 1.9 billion).
By group of countries, the balance of external trade with EU member states improved (surplus by CZK 4.1 billion higher). The largest increases in surplus were reported for trade with Germany (by CZK 4.1 billion), Slovakia (by CZK 1.5 billion) and the United Kingdom (by CZK 0.7 billion). Trade with non-EU states recorded a higher deficit (by CZK 1.4 billion y-o-y), which was most affected by trade with Japan (by CZK 2.0 billion), the United States (by CZK 1.1 billion) and China (by CZK 0.8 billion); on the other hand, deficit in trade with Russia slightly decreased (by CZK 0.8 billion).
Over last twelve months, exports and imports were by 19.9% and 17.7% up, respectively. The trade gap totalling CZK 48.5 billion was by CZK 18.1 billion down on the preceding twelve months.
Favourable development was reported for trade in ‘machinery and transport equipment‘ (a CZK 48.4 billion increase in surplus) and ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles‘ (a CZK 0.5 billion increase in surplus). Conversely, deficit grew in trade in ‘chemicals and related products’ (by CZK 9.8 billion), ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials‘ (by CZK 5.0 billion) and ‘crude materials, inedible, except fuels‘ (by CZK 2.3 billion); surplus of trade in ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material‘ dropped by CZK 8.4 billion.
By group of countries, surplus of trade with EU member states grew by CZK 51.2 billion, particularly with Germany (by CZK 35.5 billion), Slovakia (by CZK 12.0 billion), Austria (by CZK 8.6 billion) and Belgium (by CZK 7.0 billion). Deficit of trade with non-EU states rose by CZK 33.1 billion, particularly with China (by CZK 19.2 billion) and Japan (by CZK 17.4 billion).
January-September 2004 exports and imports grew by 22.7% and 19.9%, respectively. Trade deficit reached only CZK 14.8 billion, which was CZK 21.3 billion down year-on-year.
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According to the communication from the Directorate General of Customs, data were received from 95.0% of the total of 19 715 firms obliged to report to the Intrastat system. As far as large firms are concerned (firms whose value of exports to or imports from EU member states exceeded CZK 100 million in 2003), the response rate was 98.1% and data from 51 firms were missing.
Data for the firms exempted from reporting duty (firms whose annual value of trade with EU member states was below CZK 4 million for goods dispatched and below CZK 2 million for goods received) and data for the firms that failed to report were imputed. The imputation methods are based on the data the firms supplied in the previous period (see the methodology). As to the September data, the shares of imputed values in total exports and total imports were 1.4% and 2.5%, respectively.