Lockdown in the Czech Republic

23 Oct 2020 00:00 Economy

The Czech government has decided to reintroduce a lockdown due to rising infection rates.

This means severe restrictions for the citizens for the time being. Contacts should be reduced to a minimum. Citizens are only allowed to go to work, to visit family, see the doctor or to go shopping. Many stores will have to close again. How this will affect the economy is not yet foreseeable.

Most recently, the downturn continued. The volume of new orders fell by almost ten percent year-on-year - foreign orders were down 11.1 percent and domestic orders by 6.6 percent. The bloodletting affects all sectors, from the automotive industry and mechanical engineering to the production of metal structures and metal worked products. In total, in eight months Czech imports of goods decreased by 9.7 percent on a Euro basis and exports by 11 percent. On the export side, vehicles and their components and metal-working machinery were particularly negatively affected.

The Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic is expecting exports of goods and services to fall by 17 percent this year, while imports will probably decrease by 16.8 percent.

Lockdown in the Czech Republic