According to the leader of CSSD Vladimir Spidla, the Czech pension system does not violate stability of public finances. He stated that even if we had done nothing about it, in next 30 years we would have to cut our GDP for those reasons by substantially less number than today’s Italy, Poland or Hungary. However, he admitted that a modernization of the pension system would be needed in order to keep in line with demographic development.
Producer price index stabilized in March 2002, the prices in industry decreased 0.2% in comparison with previous March. Development of crude oil prices had strong impact on rise of prices in refineries by 2.7%. Also producers in glass, ceramics, porcelain and construction material decided to rise their prices. In other industries the prices stagnated or even fell. Agricultural prices recorded monthly drop by 0.5%, in comparison with last year, however, they rose by 4.2%.
France: consumer prices jumped 0.5% m/m in March following 0.1% rise in February. Year-on-year inflation reached 2.2%. Industrial output was in February 0.4% higher than in January, the output fell 1.2% y/y.
Retail sales in Germany dropped 1.1% y/y in February and they fell 2.8% in real terms. Retail sale s in current prices in the USA rose 0.2% m/m , they rose 3.6% y/y respectively.
Consumer confidence index of University of Michigan in the USA fell to 94.4 points in April compared with 95.7 points in March. The main reason for the drop was an unfavorable performance of the transatlantic equity market at the beginning of April.
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Radim Krejčí