< /p> Worker in engineering. Illustrative photo.
Prague – Although the Czech Republic has avoided a continuation of the recession, the economy is not in good shape. In addition to weak consumption, it is also struggling with a drop in investment. The Union of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic (SP ČR) stated this in a press release today in response to the published data of the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) on the development of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter. According to the CZSO, the economy grew by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, and fell by 0.2 percent year-on-year. The union expects economic stagnation this year.
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“Fortunately, during the winter period, there were no catastrophic scenarios that predicted a shortage of natural gas or an extreme increase in its price. However, the end of the year was marked by a slowdown in performance, and even if the economy seems to have avoided a continuation of the technical recession, the economy is not in strong condition.” said Bohuslav Čížek, director of the economic policy section of the SP CR.
“Companies are also facing the same obstacles in the new year, from the still high year-on-year growth in inflation associated with inflationary expectations, expensive energy prices compared to global competition, to the lack of workers and cooling demand,” added Čížek.
According to him, the next months give hope for improvement, but development will not be easy. According to SP CR, the Czech economy is very sensitive to negative fluctuations after previous crises, such as the deterioration of the economic performance of the eurozone, rising energy prices or the supply of chips or other production parts.
SP CR expects economic stagnation, GDP according to his forecast, it will increase by 0.1 percent. Economic recovery should come next year with GDP growth of 3.4 percent.
