Czech Industrial Production Declines In October; Trade Surplus Shrinks

(RTTNews) - The Czech Republic's industrial production decreased for the first time in three months in November, while trade surplus shrank as imports grew faster than exports, separate reports from the Czech Statistical Office revealed on Monday.

Industrial production declined a working-day-adjusted 2.1 percent year-on-year in October, reversing a 1.6 percent increase in September.

Among sectors, utility output contracted the most by 6.2 percent from last year, and manufacturing output dropped by 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, the positive contribution came from the mining and quarrying, where production advanced by 5.2 percent.

On a monthly basis, industrial output dropped by 0.7 percent in October.

In a separate report, the Czech Statistical Office said the trade surplus of the country decreased to CZK 11.0 billion in October from CZK 14.3 billion in the corresponding month last year.

In September, the trade balance showed a surplus of CZK 22.6 billion.

The total trade balance was affected negatively mainly by a smaller trade surplus in machinery and equipment, the agency said.

Exports logged an annual growth of 2.8 percent in October, and imports were 3.7 percent higher. Monthly, both exports and imports increased by 1.1 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively.

Elsewhere, the country's jobless rate increased slightly to 3.9 percent in November from 3.8 percent in October. In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 3.5 percent.

There were 289,000 unemployed people in November, compared to 290,900 a month ago, the Czech labor office said.