Transport and communications - 3. quarter of 2008

In Q3 2008, seasonally adjusted sales in transport increased, quarter-on-quarter and year-on- year, by 0.3% at constant prices, and, not seasonally adjusted sales were 1.8% up. The total growth came mainly from 'supporting and auxiliary transport activities'; other transport divisions recorded a drop. In communications seasonally adjusted sales increased by 2.5% quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year, not adjusted by 4.0%, while only sales in telecommunications recorded an increase.
Transport:

Seasonally adjusted sales in 'transport' rose, quarter-on-quarter, by 0.3% at constant prices. The trend component, which showed a minimum growth or rather a drop over the previous three quarters, this time increased by 0.3% (Table 3a).

Graph 1
Year-on-year, with seasonal and working days adjustment sales increased by 0.3%, adjusted only for working days sales rose by 0.8% (this year there were four working days more in Q3 compared to Q3 2007). Not seasonally adjusted sales increased y-o-y by 1.8%.

The growth in transport came only from 'supporting and auxiliary transport activities' by 4.1 p.p. (Table 2a); the result was affected by sales from auxiliary business activities of some enterprises. In 'other land transport', which is the most important division of transport in terms of contribution to the total sales, the sales dropped by 3.5%. After seven quarters of continuous growth sales in 'air transport' dropped by 4.1%. In 'railway transport' sales decreased like in the previous four quarters, this time by 3.0% while the drop was affected by lower outputs in passenger and freight transport.


Post and telecommunications :

Seasonally adjusted sales in 'post and telecommunications' increased by 2.5% quarter-on-quarter at constant prices. The trend component for the corresponding period increased by 2.0% while the average over the previous four quarters grew only by 0.5% (Table 3b).

Graph 2
Year-on-year, with seasonal and working day adjustments, sales increased by 2.5%, with only working days adjustment by 2.9%, without adjustment by 4.0%.

The total growth was contributed to by 'telecommunications' which is one of a few branches where a continuous growth was recorded from the beginning of statistical data collection, i.e. from 1997. In contrast, 'post and courier activities' after two successful years (2006 and 2007) the development resembled the year 2005 when all quarters showed a drop of sales. This was partly due to a marked price increase in services (e.g. sales at current prices in Q3 increased by 10.9%, at constant prices they dropped by 5.1%.
Seasonally adjusted sales in transport and communications rose in Q3 by 1.0%, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year, at constant prices, not seasonally adjusted by 2.4%. The growth was pulled only by telecommunications and supporting and auxiliary transport activities, traditional divisions of transport and communications coped with the sales plunge.

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Note:
1) The whole time series are seasonally adjusted every quarter; indices in the graph are changed retroactively.
2) Due to organizational changes in the Czech Railways an implicit deflator was used for deflating in Q3 2008.

Contact person: Alena Hellerová, phone: 274052921, e-mail: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 6 November 2008
End of data processing: 11 November 2008
Data for Q3 2008 are preliminary, revised data for all months of 2008 will be known in June 2009, at the latest.
Quarterly data since 1997 are available in time series ( /financial_indicators_time_series ).