Industrial production grew by 4.3% in November 2000, i.e. in line with Patria forecast of 4.8% and slightly below the S&P´s market consensus of 6% growth. The number confirms the trend of last months: after adjustment for number of working days, the industrial production rose by 6.5%. We maintain our 5% forecast for the industrial production in the whole year 2000. Note that December 2000 might turn out particularly bad, as it had 3 working days fewer than December 1999.
Industrial sales grew by 5.4%, number of employees shrank by 0.7% and productivity thus jumped by reasonable 5%. As nominal wages grew by 8.6%, the productivity still grows faster than wages, but the gap is shrinking.
The industrial growth is driven, as usually, by production of transport devices, i.e. cars and car parts. The output jumped by fantastic 43% there. Only textiles and rubber industry recorded high growth rates of 18%, the rest was less magnificent. Thus, industrial growth is limited to several branches and mostly to expanding car production at the Skoda-VW factories. Good while the European markets remain upbeat…