Industry - March 2006

In March 2006, seasonally adjusted industrial production was up by 3.0% month-on-month. The year-on-year industrial production index reached 117.9%. Sales in industry at constant prices (the year 2000) rose by 18.9%. Industrial new orders were up by 26.5% year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted industrial production was up by 3.0% month-on-month in March 2006. The trend grew by 1.1% (Table 5).

The year-on-year industrial production index reached 117.9% (or 115.8% working days adjusted, WDA; March 2006 had one working day more than March 2005), which is the second highest growth in the time series since 2001. The growth of industrial production was most affected by ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+38.4%, raising the growth of industry by 7.0 percentage points in total), ‘manufacture of electrical and optical equipment’ (+32.4%, raising the growth by 3.6 p.p.) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+14.3%, raising the growth by 2.0 p.p.). A decrease in industrial production was recorded for ‘manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products’ (-6.2%, decreasing the growth by 0.2 p.p.).

The industrial production rose in all the main industrial groupings: in ‘consumer durables’ (+50.7%), ‘capital goods’ (+34.9%), ‘intermediate goods’ (+13.2%), ‘consumer non-durables’ (+5.6%) and ‘energy’ (+0.7%).

Sales in industry at constant prices (the year 2000) rose by 18.9% (or 16.2% working days adjusted, WDA), year-on-year. Sales in industry rose especially in enterprises with 500+ employees (+25.8%), and their proportion in total sales stood at 57.1%. The increase of total sales in industry was most contributed to by ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+38.3%, raising the growth of industry by 7.4 percentage points in total), ‘manufacture of electrical and optical equipment’ (+30.1%, raising the growth of industry by 4.2 p.p.) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+15.9%, raising the growth of industry by 1.8 p.p.). Sales in industry decreased in ‘manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products’ (-12.8%, decreasing the growth by 0.3 p.p.) and ‘electricity, gas and water supply’ (-2.1%, decreasing the growth by 0.2 p.p.).

Direct export sales of industrial enterprises rose by 23.8% at constant prices (+19.8% at current prices), and their proportion in total sales of industrial enterprises stood at 49.5% (current prices).

Sales of industrial foreign-controlled enterprises were up by 29.8% at constant prices (+26.8% at current prices), and their proportion in total sales stood at 59.4% (current prices). Direct export sales of industrial foreign-controlled enterprises increased by 28.0% at constant prices (+24.2% at current prices) and made up 75.7% of total sales of these enterprises at current prices.

The average number of employees in the industry went up by 2.4% (+27.3 thousand persons) year-on-year. Year-on-year, employment increased in ‘manufacture of rubber and plastic products’ (+9.8%), ‘manufacture of transport equipment’ (+7.5%) and ‘manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products’ (+6.2%). Employment decreased most in ‘manufacture of textiles’ (-8.0%), ‘electricity, gas and water supply’ (-5.5%) and ‘manufacture of leather and leather products’ (-5.1%).

The average monthly nominal wage rose by 6.2% year-on-year and amounted to CZK 18 766. The average hourly wage increased by 0.6% and was CZK 120.7. Labour productivity (sales per employee) rose by 16.0% and productivity per hour by 9.9%. Unit wage costs were down by 8.4%.

Industrial new orders in selected CZ-NACE activities concluded in March were worth CZK 150.5 billion (current prices), of which non-domestic industrial new orders made up CZK 98.5 billion. The industrial new orders index (y-o-y) in total stood at 126.5%, of which the non-domestic industrial new orders index was 124.3%. Non-domestic industrial new orders increased most in ‘manufacture of radio, television and communication equipment and apparatus’ (index 187.3%), ‘manufacture of machinery and equipment‘ (index 145.7%) and ‘manufacture of medical, precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks’ (index 138.2%). Non-domestic industrial new orders dropped in ‘manufacture of other transport equipment‘ (index 94.3%) and ‘manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products‘ (index 96.7%). The volume of orders in selected CZ-NACE activities was CZK 331.4 billion at the end of March 2006.

Analysis - Development of the industry in the first quarter of 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: 9 May 2006
End of data processing: 11 May 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.