section_path: Impact by region or country/Europe/Czechia
section_name: Czechia
paragraph_text: Czechia
  
  Czechia was very well established economically when heading into the late 2019 year and the early 2020 year. During the fourth quarter of 2019, their real GDP saw a small increase of 0.7% compared to the last quarter. Then like most countries, they hit the wall in the early quarters of 2020 with a decrease of 3.5% during the first quarter and a significantly larger decrease of 8.7% in the second quarter. After that difficult first half of the year, Czechia bounced back hard with a large increase of 7.4% in quarter three. Finally, as the year came to a close, they increased slightly by 1% heading into the 2021 year. In opposition to the real GDP percentage, the unemployment rate didn’t vary too far from their average. In the fourth quarter of 2019, Czechia had an unemployment rate of 2.1%. With the events in 2020, Czechia managed to keep their unemployment rate even lower, with a percentage of 1.9%, in quarter one. Consequently, in the second quarter, there was an increase of 0.5% in the unemployment rate making it a 2.4% unemployment rate in the country. Just like in quarter two, we saw another increase of 0.4% during the quarter 3 with a total unemployment rate of 2.8%. Then to finish the year there was another slight increase, to 3.0% of unemployed people in Czechia. Thirdly, looking at Czechia’s CPI to see the inflation/deflation of the country during this period. In the final quarter of 2019, Czechia experienced a CPI of 107.3, going into the new year. Czechia started the year with a CPI of 108.13 which is an increase from the year before meaning Czechia is facing slight inflation. In the second quarter, Czechia experienced a big deflation with a total CPI of 103.9, showing how quickly prices can change. In the third quarter, prices rose, yet again, with their CPI totaling 105.3. To finish off the year they went back to deflating with a total CPI of 103.5, their lowest of the year.