External Trade - February 2012

In February 2012, according to preliminary data of ‘border statistics’, exports and imports at current prices rose by 15.2% and 8.8%, year-on-year (y-o-y), respectively. The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 28.7 bn, which was by CZK 15.1 bn higher compared to the same month of 2011.

According to preliminary data of ‘border statistics’, seasonally adjusted exports and imports rose by 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively, compared to January 2012. The development trend shows increasing exports (+1.2%) and imports (+0.9%).

Year-on-year, exports and imports at current prices rose by 15.2% (CZK 33.2 bn) and 8.8% (CZK 18.2 bn) respectively, of which exports of entities seated in the Czech Republic increased by 14.8% (CZK 25.2 bn) and entities seated outside the Czech Republic grew by 16.8% (CZK 7.7 bn) respectively. Imports of entities seated in the Czech Republic went up by 9.9% (CZK 16.9 bn) and imports of entities seated outside the Czech Republic increased by 3.5% (CZK 1.3 bn).

Due to depreciation of the CZK against the both main currencies, external trade grew slower in EUR (exports +11.7% and imports +5.5%) and in USD (exports +8.2% and imports +2.2%) than external trade expressed in CZK.

The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 28.7 bn which was by CZK 15.1 bn higher in comparison to the February 2011 surplus. The balance of trade of entities seated in the Czech Republic showed a surplus of CZK 10.0 bn (against CZK1.4 bn in February 2011), the trade balance of entities not seated in the Czech Republic recorded a surplus of CZK 18.7 bn (compared to CZK 12.2 bn in February 2011).

Y-o-y, surplus rose in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ (by CZK 12.9 bn), ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ (by CZK 2.2 bn), ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’ (by CZK 1.7 bn) and ‘beverages and tobacco’ and ‘crude materials, inedible, except fuels’ (both by CZK 0.1 bn). Deficit deepened in ‘chemicals and related products’ and ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ by CZK 1.9 bn and by CZK 0.2 bn respectively. Deficit in ‘food and live animals’ (CZK -2.1 bn) remained on the same level as in February 2011.

Total 'machinery and transport equipment' exports went up by 15.7% (CZK +18.5 bn), y-o-y. Larger exports were recorded mainly in ‘road vehicles’ (CZK +8.2 bn), ‘general industrial machinery and equipment’ (CZK +2.5 bn) and ‘electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances’ and ‘office machines, automatic data-processing machines’ (both by CZK +2.2 bn). Total 'machinery and transport equipment' imports increased by 6.6% (CZK +5.6 bn), of which the biggest increases were posted in imports of ‘road vehicles’ (CZK +3.0 bn) and ‘machinery specialized for particular industries’ (CZK +1.4 bn). ‘Telecommunications and sound-recording equipment’ recorded a decrease in imports (CZK -1.1 bn). Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ imports grew by 16.0% (CZK +3.5 bn), y-o-y. Imports of crude petroleum rose by 25.7% in value, but fell by 3.1% in volume. Imports of natural gas were by 4.5% higher in value and dropped by 25.8% in volume.

A surplus of trade balance with EU Member States showed a surplus of CZK 60.2 bn, which was by CZK 6.9 bn higher y-o-y. Trade balance with non-EU countries ended in a deficit of CZK 31.5 bn which was by CZK 8.2 bn lower y-o-y. Deficit decreased in trade with the Russian Federation (by CZK 4.6 bn) and China (by CZK 1.1 bn). Surplus rose in trade with Germany and the United Kingdom (both by CZK 2.6 bn), the United States (by CZK 1.2 bn), France (by CZK 1.1 bn), Austria (by CZK 1.0 bn) and Slovakia (by CZK 0.6 bn). On the other hand, deficit deepened in trade with Korea (by CZK 1.1 bn) and a decrease in deficit by CZK 1.0 bn was recorded in trade with Italy.

In January-February 2012, exports and imports rose by 13.7% and 8.3% respectively. The trade balance surplus amounting to CZK 57.9 billion was up by CZK 26.5 billion y-o-y. The trade balance improved mainly in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ (surplus up by 24.9 bn). On the contrary, deficit increased in ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ and ‘chemicals and related products’ by CZK 2.8 bn and by CZK 2.7 bn respectively.

The trade balance in national concept (methodology of balance of payments) reflecting performance of the Czech economy showed a surplus of CZK 14.3 bn in February 2012. The data on exports and imports of goods, calculated by using the VAT data according to this concept, are available in Table 8 and in the time series External trade in goods according to change of ownership (national concept).


Notes:
According to the CZSO sources data were obtained from 96.7% of companies (for goods dispatched) and 96.5% of companies (for goods arrived) obliged to report to the Intrastat system. Data for companies, exempted from the reporting duty, in accordance with the amended Decree No. 201/2005 Sb., and for companies that failed to report, have been imputed. The imputation methods are based on data of trade implemented that the companies reported in the previous period and data given in the VAT return forms.
After the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union, two systems of data collection are used as a source on external trade statistics in cross-border conception (border statistics). Extrastat records data on trade with the non-EU countries and uses some data from Single Administrative Documents. Intrastat collects data on movement of goods within the European Union for entities that are obliged to provide Intrastat data. According to legal regulations of the European Communities, entities registered for Value Added Tax have a duty to provide data for Intrastat regardless of the fact, whether an entity is or is not seated in the Czech Republic (resident or non-resident). Detailed information is available in external trade methodology: /whatisexternal_trade
The data for individual months of 2010 are final; the data for individual months of 2011and 2012 are preliminary. Preliminary data of the reference month are released together with updated data of the previous three months. All data are processed from basic reporting units and subsequently rounded.

Responsible manager of the CZSO: Ing. Marek Rojíček, Ph.D., Director of Macroeconomic Statistics Branch, phone (+420) 274 052 486
E-mail: marek.rojicek@csu.gov.cz
Contact: Karel Král, Director of External Trade Statistics Department, phone (+420) 274 052 161
E-mail: karel.kral@csu.gov.cz
Method of data collection: Intrastat forms and Single administrative documents.
End of data collection: 20 ^th working day after the end of the reference month
Documents available on the CZSO website: w-6001-11 External Trade of the Czech Republic –detailed breakdown (periodicity: monthly): /produkty/external-trade-of-the-czech-republic-december-2012-edwombu9aa
External Trade Database: /ep-6-opendocument
Next News Release: 7 May 2012

This press release was not edited for language.