Czech Republic: Industrial production suffers historic drop on Covid-19 blow in April
Industrial production plummeted 33.7% year-on-year in working-day adjusted terms in April (March: -12.5% year-on-year), marking the worst downturn on record.
The collapse reflected an across-the-board contraction of the major industrial segments, with manufacturing taking the most severe blow as car production plunged 80.1% amid the shutdown of car manufacturing plants due to the Covid-19 crisis.
On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, industrial production nosedived 23.4% in March (March: -10.8% month-on-month). The reading was another record-breaking fall after March’s. Meanwhile, the trend pointed down, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 4.8% in April, down from March’s minus 1.7%.