Czech industry output increased by 4.9 percent in 2014, and this growth is becoming ever more dependent on automobile production. Hopes of rising GDP numbers for 2015 will require a good year for selling cars. One-tenth of all Czech exports consist in completed cars sold abroad, but according to Hospodařské noviny, when car parts are added to the equation, the automobile sector produces one-third of all Czech exports. In 2013, 1,008,493 car were shipped abroad for sale, but in 2014, the number rose to 1,112,493 units. The average price of exported cars rose from CZK 292,900 to CZK 325,800. The European Union remains the most important market for the automobile sector, and after 10 years in which EU exports fell from 87 to 81 percent of all exports for the sector, 2014 saw a turnaround. However, this could be in part because the Ukraine market has collapsed, and Russian importers are far less keen to buy new cars.
