Industry - April 2006

In April 2006, seasonally adjusted industrial production was down by 2.2% month-on-month. The year-on-year industrial production index reached 103.6% or 107.6% (working days adjusted). Sales in industry at constant prices (the year 2000) rose by 3.4%. Industrial new orders were up by 13.5% year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted industrial production was down by 2.2% month-on-month in April 2006. The trend grew by 0.5% (Table 5).

The year-on-year industrial production index reached 103.6% (or 107.6% working days adjusted, WDA; April 2006 had two working days less than April 2005). The growth of industrial production (table 6) was most affected by ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+16.1%, raising the growth of industry by 2.9 percentage points in total), ‘manufacture of electrical and optical equipment’ (+7.3%, raising the growth by 0.8 p.p.) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+4.8%, raising the growth by 0.7 p.p.). A decrease in industrial production was recorded for ‘manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ (-10.7%, decreasing the growth by 0.6 p.p.), ‘manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products’ (-7.9%, decreasing the growth by 0.4 p.p.) and ‘mining and quarrying of energy producing materials’ (-9.9%, decreasing the growth by 0.2 p.p.).

As for the main industrial groupings, increases in production were recorded for ‘consumer durables’ (+22.8%), ‘capital goods’ (+10.2%), ‘energy’ (+2.9%) and ‘intermediate goods’ (+0.1%), while production of ‘consumer non-durables’ decreased (-4.3%).

Sales in industry at constant prices (the year 2000) rose by 3.4% (or 8.3% working days adjusted, WDA), year-on-year. The increase of total sales in industry was most contributed to by ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+16.1%, raising the growth of industry by 3.1 percentage points in total), ‘manufacture of electrical and optical equipment’ (+6.0%, raising the growth of industry by 0.9 p.p.) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+4.1%, raising the growth of industry by 0.5 p.p.). Sales in industry decreased most in ‘manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ (-10.8%, decreasing the growth by 0.6 p.p.), ‘manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products’ (-7.9%, decreasing the growth by 0.4 p.p.) and ‘electricity, gas and water supply’ (-3.1%, decreasing the growth by 0.2 p.p.).

Direct export sales of industrial enterprises decreased by 0.6% at constant prices (-3.5% at current prices), and their proportion in total sales of industrial enterprises stood at 47.8% (current prices).

Sales of industrial foreign-controlled enterprises were up by 9.9% at constant prices (+8.2% at current prices), and their proportion in total sales stood at 58.5% (current prices). Direct export sales of industrial foreign-controlled enterprises increased by 1.2% at constant prices (-1.5% at current prices) and made up 75.2% of total sales of these enterprises at current prices.

The average number of employees in the industry in April went up by 1.7% (+19.6 thousand persons) year-on-year. Year-on-year, employment increased in ‘manufacture of rubber and plastic products’ (+10.0%), ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+6.6%) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+5.2%). Employment decreased most in ‘manufacture of textiles’ (-8.2%), ‘electricity, gas and water supply’ (-5.7%) and ‘manufacture of leather and leather products’ (-4.4%).

The average monthly nominal wage in April rose by 5.1% year-on-year and amounted to CZK 18 523. The average hourly wage increased by 12.6% and was CZK 136.3. Labour productivity in industry (sales per employee) rose by 1.6% and hourly labour productivity by 9.0%. Unit wage costs were up by 3.4%.

Industrial new orders in selected CZ-NACE activities concluded in April were worth CZK 137.7 billion (current prices), of which non-domestic industrial new orders made up CZK 84.2 billion. The industrial new orders index (y-o-y) in total stood at 113.5%, of which the non-domestic industrial new orders index was 103.3%. Non-domestic industrial new orders increased most in ‘manufacture of medical, precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks’ (index 156.8%), ‘manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus‘ (index 118.9%) and ‘manufacture of radio, television and communication equipment and apparatus’ (index 117.5%). Non-domestic industrial new orders dropped in ‘manufacture of other transport equipment‘ (index 63.5%), ‘manufacture of wearing apparel, dressing and dyeing of fur’ (index 76.9%) and ‘manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products‘ (index 89.4%). The volume of orders in selected CZ-NACE activities was CZK 344.2 billion at the end of April 2006.

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Note
Contact: Jan Ernest, phone (+420) 274054188, e-mail jan.ernest@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 5 June 2006
End of data processing: 7 June 2006
Related publications: 8001-06 Industry of the Czech Republic ( http://www.czso.cz/eng/edicniplan.nsf/8001-06 )
Starting from the News Release publishing the results for January 2006, IPI results are processed according to the new methodology, which was published in the Press Release of 10 March 2006.