PRAGUE - The Czech economy remains in recession after it shrank a further 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012 from the preceding three-month period.
In 2012 as a whole, it shrank by 1.1 per cent.
The Statistics Office says Thursday that the Czech economy has contracted continuously since the third quarter of 2011 — the longest such period since the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
The country's central bank predicts the economy will contract 0.3 per cent this year.
To help the struggling economy, the bank cut its key interest rate to a record low of 0.05 per cent in November.
The Czech Republic does not use the common European currency but the struggling euro countries are its major trading partners.
