Czech economy emerges from recession

The Czech economy has emerged from recession with a revised 0.1-
percent uptick between the first and second quarters of the year,
following a long streak of bleak data, official data showed Tuesday.
The economy shed its recession, defined as two or more successive
quarterly declines, after contracting by a revised 4.8 percent in
the first quarter of this year and by 1.3 percent in the last
quarter of 2008. On an annual basis however, the economy contracted
by 5.5 percent in the second quarter, the fastest decline since the
Czech Republic emerged as an independent state in 1993 , the Czech
Statistical Office said. In the first quarter, Czech gross domestic
product (GDP) contracted by a revised 4.5 percent. In August,
statisticians announced a 4.9- percent annual contraction and a 0.3-
percent growth on a quarterly basis for the second quarter. The
growth between the first two quarters of the year was powered by the
manufacturing and building sectors, as well as by increased
household consumption, statisticians said. But the manufacturing
industry also pulled GDP down on an annual basis, along with net
exports.