Business & Finance

Czech car output hits new record in 2017: industry

Published January 24, 2018 Updated January 24, 2018 01:49pm

Output rose by 5.2 percent last year, the fourth year in a row of increased production, the Automotive Industry Association said in a statement.

The EU member of 10.6 million people is home to three large car plants -- Volkswagen's unit Skoda Auto, South Korea's Hyundai, and TPCA, a joint venture of Japan's Toyota and France's PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Skoda raised output by 12.2 percent to a record-high 858,103 units, Hyundai saw a drop of 0.5 percent to 356,700 cars and TPCA registered a 9.8-percent decline to 199,078 cars.

The Czech economy is heavily dependent on car production and exports mainly to the eurozone.

The country's central bank expects the economy to have grown by 4.5 percent for 2017 and to grow by 3.4 percent this year. In 2016, it grew by 2.6 percent.

 

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Press), 2018