The Czech economy grew by 1.5 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of last year, according to refined data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO). This was a deterioration compared to the estimate from the beginning of December when the statisticians reported annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.7 percent. The quarter-on-quarter GDP result was unchanged from the previous estimate, with GDP falling by 0.2 percent. This is according to information published by the CSO on its website on Monday.
Earlier, statisticians said that the annual GDP growth under review was supported by foreign demand and gross fixed capital formation. Household consumption spending harmed the economy.
“The continued decline in real household incomes, coupled with uncertainty about future development, resulted in a more significant decline in real per capita household consumption. It decreased by 3.3 percent compared to the previous quarter and fell by 7.8 percent year-on-year,” said Vladimír Kermiet, director of the Czech Statistical Office’s National Accounts Department, in a press release on Monday.
According to the CSO, real cash and non-cash household income per capita fell 5.2 percent yearly and 2.3 percent from the previous quarter.
The average monthly income from employment amounted to CZK 40,259 in the third quarter and was thus 10.7 percent lower in real terms year-on-year and 1.6 percent lower than in the second quarter.
“As a result of the lower quarter-on-quarter decline in total household income than in household expenditure, the savings rate was higher, at 16.7 percent,” the statisticians said, adding that the household investment rate fell by 0.9 points year-on-year and by 0.3 points quarter-on-quarter to 9.3 percent.
For non-financial corporations, the profit rate rose quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year to 46.6 percent. Their investment rate stood at 29.1 percent, up from the same period a year earlier but down from the previous quarter.