Industry - March 2024

Industrial production decreased in real terms by 2.7%, year-on-year (y-o-y), in March. In the month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, it was by 1.6% lower. The value of new orders increased by 5.1%, y-o-y.

Industrial production in March 2024 was in real terms by 1.6% lower, m-o-m. In the year-on-year comparison, it decreased by 2.7%. “The year-on-year decrease in industrial production in March was influenced the most by two factors. The first one was an extraordinarily high comparison basis in manufacture of motor vehicles last year. The second one was a continuing decrease in manufacture of machinery and equipment, which already affected most of fields of this economic activity,” Radek Matějka, Director of the Agricultural and Forestry, Industrial, Construction, and Energy Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), says. In manufacture of machinery and equipment, production is decreasing, for example, in manufacture of pumps, agricultural and metal forming machinery. A decrease in production further continued in manufacture of fabricated metal products and in manufacture of basic metals. On the other hand, production increased in March in other manufacturing, partially due to a low comparison basis. An increasing trend continued in manufacture of food products and paper and paper products. In manufacture of wearing apparel and of leather and related products, production also increased, year-on-year.

The value of new orders at current prices in surveyed industrial CZ-NACE activities increased by 5.1%, y-o-y, in March 2024. Non-domestic new orders increased by 8.6%, y-o-y; domestic new orders decreased by 1.1%. The value of new orders decreased, month-on-month, by 1.5%. A y-o-y increase also influenced the most the automotive industry (the most important economic activity of Czech industry), however, in the opposite direction than in the case of production. “In manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, the increase of the value of new orders was partially influenced by the low comparison basis from the last year but also by an increase of the entire economic activity. The value of newly concluded orders also increased in manufacture of electrical equipment, especially manufacture of lighting equipment for cars,” Veronika Doležalová, Head of the Industrial Statistics Unit of the CZSO, says. For the first time since the end of 2022, the value of new orders increased, year-on-year, in manufacture of chemicals and chemical products. A lower number of new orders was recorded in manufacture of machinery and equipment, manufacture of fabricated metal products, and manufacture of basic metals.

The average registered number of employees in industry decreased by 2.0%, y-o-y, in March 2024.

According to data released by Eurostat, industrial production in the EU27 decreased by 5.4%, year-on-year, in February 2024. The biggest year-on-year decrease was recorded by Ireland (by 36.0%) and Belgium (by 12.7%). German industry decreased by 6.1%; manufacture of electrical equipment decreased there by 16.1%, y-o-y, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply by 12.5%, and manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers by 11.1%. On the other hand, Spanish industry and Slovenian industry increased the most (by 3.5% and 2.8%, respectively). Performance of Czech industry increased by 0.7%. As for economic activities of industry, manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products decreased the most in the EU27 (by 24.8%) and the highest growth was recorded by manufacture of other transport equipment (6.4%). 

For more detailed information on the development of industrial production in the first quarter of 2024, see the Supplementary information to the news release on industry.

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Notes:

March 2024 had three working days less than March 2023.
The year-on-year development of all indicators is published after having been adjusted for the influence of the number of working days. Month-on-month or quarter-on-quarter rates have also been seasonally adjusted. Contributions to an increase or to a decrease have been calculated from data that had been adjusted for working days.
Concurrently with publishing the results for February 2024, the base period for short-term statistics changed. Indices are newly compared to the average of the year 2021 (it was 2015 before); new weighting schemes have been used that were derived from the results of structural business statistics for the year 2021. For conversion to constant prices, new price indices have been used (also based on the year 2021). For seasonal adjustment, new models in the JDEMETRA+ programme were created. In compliance with the CZSO Data revision policy, concurrently with processing of data for January 2024, data for January through December 2023 have been revised. Time series have been recalculated in their whole length, back to January 2000.
Methodology: https://csu.gov.cz/pru_m
 

Responsible head at the CZSO: Radek Matějka, Director of the Agricultural and Forestry, Industrial, Construction, and Energy Statistics Department, phone number: (+420) 736 168 543, e-mail: radek.matejka@csu.gov.cz
Contact person: Veronika Doležalová, Head of the Industrial Statistics Unit, phone number (+420) 734 352 291, e-mail: veronika.dolezalova@csu.gov.cz
Method of data acquisition: direct survey of the CZSO (Prům 1–12)
End of data collection: 29 April 2024
Related outputs: time series in the Public database, the Industry chapter  
international comparison in EU countries: Eurostat
Next news release will be published on: 6 June 2024