External Trade - June 2012

In June 2012, according to preliminary data of ‘border statistics’, current price exports and imports rose by 5.6% and 0.9%, year-on-year (y-o-y), respectively. The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 29.4 bn, which was by CZK 11.8 bn higher, y-o-y.

According to preliminary data of ‘border statistics’, seasonally adjusted exports grew by 0.7% while imports fell by 0.6% compared to May 2012. The development trend shows increasing exports (+0.4%) and decreasing imports (-0.1%).

Year-on-year, current prices exports and imports rose by 5.6% (CZK +13.9 bn) and 0.9% (CZK +2.1 bn) respectively. Exports of entities seated in the Czech Republic increased by 4.4% (CZK +8.6 bn) and entities seated outside the Czech Republic grew by 10.3% (CZK +5.3 bn) respectively. Imports of entities seated in the Czech Republic grew by 0.9% (CZK +1.8 bn) and imports of entities seated outside the Czech Republic increased by 0.9% (CZK +0.3 bn).

Due to depreciation of the CZK against the both main currencies, converting to EUR exports went up by 0.1% while imports fell by 4.4%. When expressed in USD, exports and imports fell by 12.9% and 16.8% respectively.

The trade balance ended in a surplus of CZK 29.4 bn which was by CZK 11.8 bn higher in comparison to the June 2011 surplus. The balance of trade of entities seated in the Czech Republic showed a surplus of CZK 11.3 bn (against a surplus of CZK 4.5 bn in June 2011), the trade balance of entities not seated in the Czech Republic recorded a surplus of CZK 18.1 bn (compared to a surplus of CZK 13.1 bn in June 2011).

Y-o-y, surplus rose in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ (by CZK 5.3 bn), ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’ (by CZK 2.2 bn), ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ (by CZK 1.9 bn), and ‘beverages and tobacco’ (by CZK 0.2 bn). Deficit shrank in ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ and ‘food and live animals’ (by CZK 2.0 bn and CZK 0.2 bn) respectively. Trade balance improved in ‘crude materials, inedible, except fuels’ (by CZK 2.2 bn) as a deficit turned into a surplus. ‘Chemicals and related products’ recorded an increase in deficit of CZK 2.4 bn.

Total 'machinery and transport equipment' exports rose by 5.8% (CZK +7.9 bn), y-o-y. Increases were reported mainly in ‘road vehicles’ (by CZK +4.7 bn) and ‘office machines and automatic data-processing machines’ (by CZK +2.2 bn). ‘Telecommunications and sound-recording machines’ exports fell (CZK -2.9 bn). Total 'machinery and transport equipment' imports rose by 2.7% (CZK +2.6 bn), y-o-y, of which the largest increase was posted in imports of ‘road vehicles’ (CZK +2.6 bn). Decreases in imports were observed in ‘telecommunications and sound-recording machines’ (CZK -0.5 bn). ‘Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ imports fell by 5.5% (CZK-1.3 bn), y-o-y. Imports of crude petroleum rose by 11.2% in value but it fell by 11.9% in volume. Natural gas imports were lower both in value and volume by 18.2% and 34.5% respectively.

The trade balance with EU Member States ended a surplus of CZK 58.9 bn, which was by CZK 0.8 bn higher, y-o-y. Trade balance with non-EU countries showed a deficit of CZK 29.5 bn which was by CZK 11.0 bn lower, y-o-y. Deficit shrank in trade with Russia (by CZK 5.0 bn) and China (by CZK 1.8 bn). Balance improved in trade with the Ukraine and the Netherlands (by 1.8 bn and 1.3 bn respectively), as a deficit turned into a surplus. Surplus increased in trade with the United States (by CZK 1.4 bn), Germany (by CZK 1.2 bn), Turkey (by CZK 1.1 bn) and Slovakia (by CZK 0.2 bn). Deficit deepened in trade with Korea (by CZK 1.7 bn) and Azerbaijan (by CZK 1.0 bn). The trade balance deteriorated in trade with Poland (by CZK 1.1 bn) as a surplus turned into a deficit.

In January – June 2012, exports and imports rose by 8.5% and 3.8% respectively. The trade balance surplus amounting to CZK 169.8 billion was up by CZK 70.9 billion, y-o-y. Surplus rose mainly in ‘machinery and transport equipment’ (by CZK 48.2 bn) and ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ (by CZK 12.6 bn). On the contrary, deficit increased in ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ by CZK 2.3 bn).

The trade balance in national concept (methodology of balance of payments) reflecting performance of the Czech economy showed a surplus of CZK 7.9 bn in June 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 98.1% of companies (for goods dispatched) and 98.0% 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: September 6, 2012

This press release was not edited for language.