External Trade - August 2004
The lowest August deficit in last decade
Publication Date: 06. 10. 2004
Product Code: r-6001-04
According to preliminary data, exports and imports seasonally adjusted fell by 1.2% and 6,3% month-on-month , respectively.
Current price exports rose by 29.0% and imports by 22.6% year-on-year . Due to different exchange rate trends, external trade grew substantially faster in terms of US dollars (exports +43.9% and imports +36.9%), whereas in terms of euros it went up slightly more (exports +31.6% and imports +25.2%) than external trade valued in Czech korunas .
The trade balance ended in a deficit of CZK 2.4 billion, which amounts to a y-o-y improvement of CZK 4.6 billion. This is the lowest deficit recorded in August since 1995.The balance with EU member states reached a surplus of CZK 17.0 billion, the balance with non-EU states ended in a deficit of CZK 19.4 billion. A considerable improvement occurred in trade in ’machinery and transport equipment’ where surplus increased by CZK 7.5 billion. Trade deficit decreased in the balance of trade in ’mineral fuels’ (by CZK 0.4 billion) and ‘chemicals and related products’ (by CZK 0.3 billion) On the other hand, the balance deteriorated in trade in ‘semi-finished products and materials‘ (surplus down by CZK 1.1 billion) and ‘miscellaneous consumer articles‘ (the CZK 0.3 billion surplus turned into a deficit of CZK 0.7 billion).
The favourable development in ’machinery and transport equipment’ was primarily affected by improved balance of trade in passenger cars (exports 26.4% up and imports 5.7% down) and automatic data processing machines (exports 31.1% up and imports 22.0% down). Marked increases were recorded for exports of telecommunications equipments (+114%), parts and accessories of motor vehicles (+38.4%) and general industrial machinery and equipment (+36.5%). A lower deficit in trade in ’mineral fuels’ was due to a fall in imports of natural gas released into free circulation (by 27.3% in terms of value). Conversely, imports of petroleum and petroleum products rose by 18.6% in terms of value and fell by 17.6% in terms of volume.
By group of countries, improvement was reported for trade with EU member states (surplus by CZK 7.2 billion higher). The largest increases in surplus were observed in trade with Germany (by CZK 2.6 billion), Slovakia (by CZK 1.7 billion), the Netherlands (by CZK 1.2 billion) and Belgium (by CZK 0.9 billion). The balance of trade with Hungary turned from the CZK 0.1 billion deficit into a CZK 1.3 billion surplus. Deficit grew in trade with non-EU states (by CZK 2.6 billion y-o-y), of which most in trade with Japan (by CZK 3.6 billion) and China (by CZK 1.7 billion). On the other hand, deficit slightly decreased in trade with Russia (by CZK 1.3 billion).
Over last twelve months , exports and imports were by 19.0% and 16.6% up, respectively, and the trade gap totalling CZK 51.2 billion was by CZK 19.4 billion down on the preceding twelve months.
Favourable development was reported for trade in ‘machinery and transport equipment‘ (CZK 43.5 billion increase in surplus) and ‘miscellaneous consumer articles‘ (CZK 1.4 billion increase in surplus). Conversely, deficit grew in trade in ‘chemicals and related products’ (by CZK 12.6 billion) and ‘crude materials‘ (by CZK 3.3 billion); surplus in trade in ‘semi-finished products and materials‘ dropped by CZK 3.9 billion.
By group of countries, surplus grew in trade with EU member states by CZK 51.6 billion, particularly with Germany (by CZK 33.9 billion), Slovakia (by CZK 11.6 billion), Austria (by CZK 11.1 billion) and the Netherlands (by CZK 7.2 billion). Deficit rose in trade with non-EU states by CZK 32.2 billion, of which with China by CZK 18.6 billion and with Japan by CZK 15.7 billion.
January-August 2004 exports and imports grew by 23.0% and 20.1%, respectively. The trade deficit reached only CZK 17.9 billion, which was CZK 18.6 billion down year-on-year.
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According to the communication from the Directorate General of Customs, data were obtained from 93.6% of firms out of the total of 19 511 firms with the duty to provide data for the Intrastat system. As far as large firms are concerned (firms whose value of annual exports or imports in trade with 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 that failed to report and data for the firms exempted from reporting duty (firms whose value of annual trade with EU member states was below CZK 4 million for dispatched goods and below CZK 2 million for received goods) were imputed. The imputation methods are based on data the firms supplied in the previous period (see the methodology). As for August data, the shares of imputed values in total exports and total imports were 2.4% and 5.0%, respectively.
Note
Contact: Petra Křížová, phone (+420) 274 054 270, e-mail: krizova@gw.czso.cz
Data source: Intrastat reports and Single Administrative Documents (SADs) collected by the Directorate General of Customs (DGC)
Related publication: 6001-04 External Trade of the Czech Republic in August 2004 ( https://csu.gov.cz )
The data for individual months of 2003 are final, referring to 27 August 2004 closing date, and data for individual months of the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2004 are updated, referring to 27 August 2004 closing date.
The August 2004 data, referring to 29 September 2004 closing date, are preliminary and will be updated in December 2004 together with data for individual months from the beginning of the year.