External Trade of the Czech Republic

Commentary

External trade in May 2006

According to preliminary data, seasonally adjusted exports increased by 4.8% and imports by 8.7% month-on-month. The trend component rose by 1.5% in exports and by 0.7% in imports.

In terms of year-on-year comparison, exports and imports at current prices were up by 13.4% and 17.1%, respectively. The growth rate of imports overtook the growth rate of exports by 3.7 percentage points. Due to the appreciation of the Czech koruna against the euro and against the US dollar, external trade grew faster in terms of euros (exports +21.2%, imports +25.1%) and in terms of US dollars (exports +22.0% and imports +25.9%) than external trade in Czech korunas
The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 0.6 billion, which was by CZK 4.7 billion worse than in May 2005. Trade balance with the EU member states was active by CZK 23.2 billion and with the non-EU states passive by CZK 22.6 billion. The balance improved in trade in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ by CZK 2.3 billion, ‘beverages and tobacco’ by CZK 0.4 billion and in ‘crude materials, inedible, except fuels’ by CZK 0.2 billion. On the contrary, the balance deteriorated in ’mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ by CZK 4.4 billion, ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles‘ by CZK 2.0 billion, ‘food and live animals’ by CZK 0.6 billion and ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ by CZK 0.5 billion.
The growth of total exports of ‘machinery and transport equipment’ grew by 16.2% (by CZK 12.7 billion). The highest share in this growth in terms of value had increases in exports of ‘road vehicles’ (CZK +3.7billion), ‘electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances’ (CZK +3.4 billion) and ‘office machines and automatic data - processing machines’ (CZK +2.4 billion). Imports of ‘machinery and transport equipment’ grew even faster, by 17.5% (CZK +10.4 billion) in total, of which in terms of value most for imports of ‘office machines and automatic data-processing machines’ (CZK +1.8 billion), ‘road vehicles’ (CZK +1.6 billion) and ‘power-generating machinery and equipment’ (CZK +1.5 billion).
The higher imports of ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ by 35.9% (CZK +4.8 billion) were mainly influenced by imports of crude petroleum (+41.0% in terms of value, +2.2% in terms of volume) and natural gas (+40.5% in terms of value, +1.5% in terms of volume).
By group of countries, trade surplus with the EU member states fell by CZK 0.9 billion and trade deficit with the non-EU states increased by CZK 3.8 billion. Balance improved particularly in trade with Germany by CZK 2.5 billion, Ukraine by CZK 1.2 billion, Switzerland by CZK 0.5 billion, the Netherlands by CZK 0.5 billion and Belgium by CZK 0.4 billion. On the other hand, balance deteriorated in trade with Russia by CZK 3.1 billion, China by CZK 1.6 billion, Denmark by CZK 1.4 billion, Poland by CZK 0.9 billion and Taiwan by CZK 0.6 billion.

Over the last twelve months, compared to the preceding twelve months, exports and imports grew by 10.6% and 9.2%, respectively. The trade balance reached a surplus of CZK 36.6 billion, which was an improvement of CZK 25.5 billion.
Trade in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ (surplus up by CZK 74.3 billion), ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles‘ (surplus up by CZK 6.6 billion), ‘crude materials, inedible, except fuels’ (deficit down by CZK 3.4 billion) and ‘food and live animals’ (deficit down by CZK 1.9 billion) had a favourable effect on the development of the trade balance. On the other hand, balance deteriorated in trade with ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ (deficit up by CZK 47.6 billion), ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ (surplus down by CZK 10.6 billion), ‘chemicals and related products’ (deficit up by CZK 3.1 billion) and ‘beverages and tobacco’ (deficit up by CZK 0.6 billion).
By group of countries, trade surplus with the EU member states was higher by CZK 35.6 billion, trade deficit with the non-EU states increased by CZK 10.1 billion. Balance improved with the United States by CZK 15.6 billion, France by CZK 13.9 billion, the United Kingdom by CZK 12.7 billion, Ukraine by CZK 11.6 billion, Italy by CZK 11.5 billion and Spain by CZK 8.6 billion. Balance deteriorated in trade with Russia by CZK 27.7 billion, China by CZK 19.2 billion, the Netherlands by CZK 14.5 billion, Germany by CZK 6.3 billion, Poland by CZK 5.2 billion and Austria by CZK 4.1 billion.

January-May 2006 exports and imports grew by 13.6% and 14.6%, respectively. Trade surplus of CZK 26.2 billion was by CZK 2.9 billion lower year-on-year.

According to the note of the Directorate General of Customs, data were received from 94.1% of the companies obliged to report to the Intrastat system.
Data for companies exempted from the reporting duty (those whose annual value of trade with the EU member states was below CZK 4 million for goods dispatched and below CZK 2 million for goods received) and data for companies that failed to report were imputed. The imputation methods are based on data that companies supplied in the previous period.