It would be the biggest economic quarterly drop year-on-year in the country's modern history, Prague Radio said.
Amid the global economic crisis that also hit the Czech Republic, Prague economists originally expected the GDP would shrink 2 percent in the first quarter.
Officials at the Czech Finance Ministry forecast that the economy output would drop 2.3 percent for the whole of 2009, while in 2010 the GDP would slightly improve and rise 0.8 percent.
The country's unemployment rose from 7.7 percent in March to 7.9 percent in April, and is likely to rise to 10 percent by the year's end, the radio said.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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