Central European Daily

Preliminary figures of GDP of Central European countries signalled on Friday that the economic growth in the region gained momentum. In the Czech Republic the GDP grew by 1.6% q/q and 0.8% y/y in the last quarter of 2013, which was well

above market expectations. According to the Czech Statistical Office, the economy was primarily fuelled by investment in means of transport and machinery. The question is how long the investing into cars may keep pace and also how much the investment rise is influenced by fear of price increases in the wake of the devaluation of the koruna. Hence we would not overestimate the effect of investment. Nevertheless according to our view the growth prospects of the Czech economy for this year remain very favourable mainly due to persisting growth in Germany as well as decent orders in industry.