Czech industrial production grew 6.9% y-to-y in May, below the April double-digit growth of 11.4% and below the market consensus of a 9.5% growth. The growth remains to be generated in the same segments: export oriented production grew 8.5% y-to-y, investment related production 11.2% and production in foreign-controlled firms by 11.5%. However, all these numbers are homogeneously lower than their April's counterparts. Industrial sales too grew by a slower pace of 5.7% (April: 9.6%). The number of employees rose by 1.0% in May and their wages in real terms grew by 2.3%. Productivity fared better as it grew by 4.6% y-to-y in real terms.
The May results do not change the Patria outlook: we maintain our forecasts of the industrial output growth of about 7.5% for the 2001. Industry is thus accelerating as it fell back in 1999 and then grew 5.4% in 2000.
(Martin Kupka)