Czech companies are optimistic for 2015

The year 2015 should be the year of growing optimism and improving condition of the Czech companies. This conclusion results from the survey organized by the Confederation of Industry (SP) among its members at the end of 2014. „The companies are awaiting that the contracts, investments and employment will grow,“ the Confederation’s vice-president Radek Špicar said at the SP‘ press conference on 13^th January 2015. „The survey has confirmed that there is optimism returning in the sphere of industry.“

A favorable trend could be observed in the development of the new contracts. More than one fifth of the companies awaits that the number of new contracts will grow in the first quarter of 2015 and almost one third of them believes that the trend will continue in the second quarter as well. Approximataly sixty percent of the Czech companies don’t expect any change, nevertheless.

Most Czech companies await some restructuralization measures, most often a cost reduction (73 percent of them). Sixty one percent of the firms want increase the labour productivity and 55 percent believe that they will find new markets. About one third of them plans to invest in innovations.

Czech companies are searching for new markets more intensely than in the previous years. Nevertheless, the EU remains a key market for them and they don’t want to lose the Russian one. While in the summer of 2014, about 36 percent of the companies have been awaiting an increase of investment in the next twelve months, at the end of the year it was almost one half of the respondents (48 percent).

„The Czech companies are more active in investment than in the previous years,“ Špicar stressed. „These investments should support the growth because our companies want to invest in the production, enlargement of the production capacities and its effectiveness‘s enhancement.“

The improving condition of the firms is also becoming evident in the rise of the nominal wage. The Confederations‘ survey has revealed that this indicator should represent about 1,75 percent this year.

„The average number doesn’t reflect the condition of the individual branches and companies or the result of the wage negotiations,“ Špicar pointed out. „The development of the wages could be completely other in the individual companies.“

The actual development helps to improve the situation on the labour market. There is, nevertheless, no significant change in recruitment of new employees to be awaited. In the existing firms, the employment could rise less than 1,5 percent in 2015.