1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

Figure 4: New registrations, exports and production of passenger cars in Germany (monthly data)

Source: Verband der Automobiliidustrie (VDA) Negative producer and consumer confidence (although investments by firms and households are now slowly increasing) and the slowing of the German economy, which has nearly fallen into recession, are contributing to this result for the car industry. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate in Germany is still one of the lowest in the EU and the outlook for the economy is relatively positive. The protracted resolution of the problem of Brexit and general uncertainty abroad have played a part in recent developments, standing behind the slowdown in investment and household consumption, perhaps as a result of self-fulfilling expectations. German firms and consumers in general have been buying new cars, but considering the uncertain times have bought cheaper ones, which has somewhat helped foreign carmakers, including Czech ones. The automobile industry is one of the most important German economic sectors. According to the national accounts, the approximately 880,000 employees of Germany’s car industry contributed 134.9 billion euros to economic production in 2019. That corresponded to a 4.7% share of Germany’s overall Gross Value Added. In Germany, data on unemployment and turnover in industrial sectors and their sub-sectors (in our case, WZ08-29, Manufacture of Motor Vehicles, Trailers, and Semi-trailers) is available in categorical detail (for example, persons employed, gross wages and salaries, turnover) and is published by the Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis) on both a yearly and monthly basis. Data is provided on the international level by Eurostat (the statistical office of the EU), which collects data from countries outside the EU as well. We will use data from Eurostat for an international overview and comparison of the employment and Gross Value Added for which the automotive industry is responsible. 3.1.3 European Union Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) publishes categorical, detailed data on the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers in the Annual Detailed Enterprise Statistics for Industry (NACE Rev. 2, B-E) on a yearly basis. Data for the year 2019 should be available by about the middle of 2020. Every month, the ACEA publishes two press releases reporting new passenger car registrations in Europe, which also contain updates of the previous year’s results. The data published by the

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