Retailers realized it back in December when they saw their sales shrink four percent compared to the year before, but the Czech Statistics Office (CSU) has released preliminary figures suggesting that the country’s economy remains in recession. The CSU revealed that GDP fell 0.3% in the last three months of the year, the fourth consecutive negative result.
This is now the country’s longest ever recession, and is being blamed on government austerity measures and rising unemployment. The country’s budget deficit has shrunk from 5.8% to just 3.5% of GDP since 2009, but this is not benefiting the average Czech in the short-term. Rising exports have at least softened the blow of falling domestic demand, but the Czech National Bank has warned the recession could continue for the remainder of the year, but many economists are predicting improvement to begin before 2014.
