Czech Economy Races to EU’s Fastest Growth on Weak Koruna Policy
Workers assemble the interior of a Skoda automobile on the production line at Volkswagen AG's Skoda Auto AS manufacturing plant in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, on Friday, March 27, 2015. The Czech Republic will benefit from adopting the euro and should join the monetary union after the Greek debt crisis calms down, the head of Volkswagen AG's unit, Skoda Auto AS, said.
Photographer: Martin DivisekCzech economic growth accelerated to a record and outpaced all other members of the European Union in the first quarter, helped by a policy of keeping the currency weak and the government’s looser budget stance.
Gross domestic product increased 2.8 percent from the last three months of 2014, the statistics office in Prague said in a flash estimate on its website on Friday. GDP rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier, the fastest clip since the second quarter of 2008. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 13 economists was for growth of 0.8 percent quarter-on-quarter and a 2 percent increase on an annual basis.