Politics & Economics

Why is Sugar in Czechia the Most Expensive in the EU?

In March of this year, the price of sugar in the Czech Republic rose by 98% compared to 2022, making it the most expensive in the European Union. Monthly data shows that this increase has been steady since August 2021, with inflation rates for February and March 2023 reaching 61%. This means that the average sugar prices in these two months were 61% higher than during the same months of the previous year. Czechia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, and Latvia observed the highest annual inflation rates for sugar, with an increase of 98%, 97%, 82%, 72%, and 70% respectively, while substantial, though lesser, increases were also recorded in Luxembourg (19%), Belgium (35%), Bulgaria (36%), and Ireland (37%). Hungary had the smallest increase in sugar prices by 17%. The rise in sugar prices is partly due to gas prices demanded by sugar mills during their production process. According to Eurostat, the gas price in the Czech Republic was the highest in the EU during the latter half of the previous year, increasing by 231% YoY, while it was only by about 30% in Hungary. A limitation on sugar prices imposed by the Hungarian government as part of its anti-inflation strategy earlier last...

by Prague Morning May 10, 2023

Czech Economy Probably Out of Recession, Preliminary Data Show

The Czech economy probably pulled out of recession in the first quarter with slight growth driven by trade, preliminary data indicated, although high inflation continued to bite. Gross domestic product in the Czech Republic increased by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter, defying a Reuters poll forecast for a 0.1% drop. GDP shrank by a less-than-expected 0.2% year-on-year, the data showed. The Czech Republic is the first economy in central Europe to report first-quarter GDP data, but all have felt the strain of high inflation, driven by steep energy price rises last year. At the end of 2022, the Czech and Hungarian economies slipped into technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of declining quarter-on-quarter GDP. “So it is confirmed, the recession really ended (last quarter),” Komercni Banka economist Jan Vejmelek said in a Twitter post after the data. The Czech statistics office did not give details of the preliminary data but said external demand buoyed the economy while household consumption decreased. Updated data is due on May 30. Inflation has surged to double-digit rates across central Europe but looks to have passed a peak. Interest rates remain elevated and central banks are not in a hurry to ease policy until price growth is...

by Prague Morning May 02, 2023

Czech FM: Ukraine EU Accession Talks Could Start This Year

Ukraine’s EU accession could begin soon if all EU member states can be persuaded, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky after President Petr Pavel vowed to push for accession talks to be opened by the end of this year. Pavel previously said he would be pushing for this in line with the position of Czech diplomacy, which Kyiv also seeks. “I can imagine it, but there must be consensus in the entire EU-27,” Lipavsky said. However, many EU member states are sceptical, and Czechia is trying to allay their fears. Ukraine would have to meet all the conditions and “cannot enjoy any reliefs” in this respect, Lipavsky said. Ukraine was granted candidate status for EU membership in 2022. It received seven recommendations from Brussels last year that it should follow to move closer to membership in the bloc. European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said in January this year that Ukraine had made good progress in implementing those recommendations related to domestic politics and the judiciary, such as the fight against corruption and the procedure for approving judges of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court. Czechia, in cooperation with other allies, will seek ways to increase the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, Czech...

by Prague Morning May 02, 2023

May 1, 2004: The Czech Republic Joins the European Union

The Treaty of Accession regulated the EU’s enlargement to allow 10 eastern and southern European countries to become members of the European Union on 1 May 2004. The countries joining the European Union on 1 May 2004 were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, This largest round of enlargement in the EU’s history was marked by public celebrations at many border crossings and in the European capitals. The “eastern enlargement project” had begun a long time before: in the early 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, the EU concluded Association Agreements with many central and eastern European states with the aim of liberalising trade, developing guidelines for political dialogue and harmonising national laws and regulations with EU law. “We are bringing into the EU family 10 new member states and 75 million new EU citizens,” said on that day European Commission President Romano Prodi. “Five decades after our great project of European integration began, we are celebrating the fact that Europeans are no longer kept apart by artificial ideological barriers. “We share the same destiny and we are stronger when we act together. I urge all Europeans to join in celebrations of this astonishing achievement.” The moves towards accession...

by Prague Morning May 01, 2023

Czech, Slovakian Presidents Pay Joint Visit to Ukraine

The Presidents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Petr Pavel and Zuzana Čaputová – are in Ukraine. They witnessed the devastating effects of the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. Czech President Petr Pavel stressed that – as a former military man – he did not expect to see evidence of planned and massive attacks on civilian targets in Europe. Shocked by the visit to Borodianka Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová wrote on Facebook that “the shameful attack on Ukrainian cities, including Uman and Dnieper, which resulted in the deaths of innocent people, reminds us that we cannot look away”. Czech media point out that Pavel’s and Čaputová’s visit takes place right after the night Russian rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, in which at least a dozen people were killed. In Borodianka, the Czech President said that the sight of the ruined city reminded him of what he had seen as a military man during the war in former Yugoslavia. “I thought I would never see it again – so close and especially in Europe. The number of attacks on civilian objects shows that they are intentional. A navigation error can happen from time to time, but with this number, it’s...

by Prague Morning Apr 28, 2023

Crimea Platform Parliamentary Summit to Be Held in Prague in October

The next Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform will be held in Prague on October 24. “I am glad that we agreed with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and its chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk that Prague will be the venue for the second meeting of this initiative on October 24,” Speaker of the Chamber of the Deputies of the Czech Republic Markéta Pekarová Adamová said at the Conference of the Speakers of EU Parliaments in Prague. According to her, the Platform is an important forum that helps spread information about the situation in occupied Crimea. “It sends a clear signal to the international community that changing borders by force is absolutely unacceptable”, Pekarová Adamová emphasized. Pekarová also received the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise from Ukrainian Supreme Council head Ruslan Stefanchuk for her exceptional personal efforts to strengthen the cooperation between Ukraine and the Czech Republic and support for Ukraine. The order was awarded to her by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Crimea Platform summit was held for the first time in Zagreb, Croatia, last year, and was attended by then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Pekarova Adamova called at the time for the establishment of an international...

by Prague Morning Apr 26, 2023

Czech Lawmakers Pass Law Requiring 2% of GDP Spending on Defense

The lower house of the Czech parliament approved legislation on Friday requiring state budgets to devote spending worth at least 2% of gross domestic product to defense starting next year. European countries have accelerated their defense spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as many capitals have not yet met NATO’s 2%-of-GDP financing commitment. In the 2023 budget, defense spending is planned at 1.52% of GDP. The bill estimates that an extra 21.5 billion crowns (almost $1 billion) over the government’s mid-term fiscal outlook would be needed in the 2024 central state budget for the defense spending to reach the required level. The Czech Republic, a NATO member since 1999, has sought to build up and modernize its armed forces after years of underspending, and after supplying hundreds of pieces of heavy military equipment to Ukraine over the past year. The country signed in December a non-binding memorandum with Sweden for the delivery of more than 200 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. It has also been in negotiations with the United States to buy 24 F-35 jets. However, the additional spending may complicate the center-right government’s efforts to cut the budget deficit by 70 billion crowns in 2024 from...

by Prague Morning Apr 25, 2023

Czech, Polish, Slovak PMs Call on World to Stand by Ukraine

The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have called for the world to “stand by Ukraine without qualification or reservation” in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine. Mateusz Morawicki, Petr Fiala and Eduard Heger wrote in the bimonthly that if Ukraine loses its war against Russia, the rest of Central Europe could be next. To prevent this, they said, Ukraine must be supported until Russian forces “withdraw from its territory entirely, putting a definitive end to the Kremlin’s revanchism and imperialism.” Anything less, they asserted, would be “like issuing an open invitation to all authoritarian lunatics who think that it is OK to invade their neighbors.” The three heads of government argued that a frozen conflict would not be a viable option as this is Moscow’s preferred modus operandi for buying time so it can “regroup and rebuild its forces while continuing to wage political warfare and export its imperial ideology,” something they said the Kremlin had been doing for years. The prime ministers wrote that their countries have hundreds of years of experience of Russia’s “revanchism, totalitarianism, occupation, deportations and massacres,” which is why they had been sounding the alarm well in advance of Moscow’s February...

by Prague Morning Apr 25, 2023

Czech Producer Price Inflation Eases To 10.2%, Lowest In 18 Months

The Czech Republic’s industrial producer prices increased at the slowest pace in one-and-half years in March, figures from the Czech Statistical Office showed on Wednesday. The industrial producer price index climbed 10.2 percent year-on-year in March, much slower than the 16.0 percent surge in February. Economists had expected inflation to moderate to 11.3 percent. Further, this was the weakest rate of increase since September 2021, when prices had grown 9.2 percent. However, inflation has remained in double digits since October 2021. The annual price growth in the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning segments slowed to 21.4 percent in March from 28.5 percent in the prior month. Among the main industrial groupings, prices for non-durable consumer goods grew the most by 29.4 percent and those for energy goods by 12.3 percent. Excluding energy, industrial producer price inflation eased to 9.5 percent in March from 12.4 percent in February. On a monthly basis, producer prices dropped 1.0 percent in March. Economists had expected prices to fall slightly by 0.1 percent. xosotin chelseathông tin chuyển nhượngcâu lạc bộ bóng đá arsenalbóng đá atalantabundesligacầu thủ haalandUEFAevertonfutebol ao vivofutemaxmulticanaisonbetbóng đá world cupbóng đá inter milantin juventusbenzemala ligaclb leicester cityMUman citymessi lionelsalahnapolineymarpsgronaldoserie atottenhamvalenciaAS ROMALeverkusenac milanmbappenapolinewcastleaston...

by Prague Morning Apr 20, 2023

NATO Has ‘No Alternative’ but to Support Ukraine, Says Czech President

NATO countries have no choice other than supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia since not doing so would mean victory for Moscow, the Czech Republic’s president said on Wednesday. There is “no alternative to supporting Ukraine because the alternative to it is the success of Russia,” Petr Pavel said at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. After talks at the alliance headquarters in Brussels the two discussed Prague’s contribution to NATO and the security challenges involved in the war in Ukraine, along with China’s more assertive foreign policy. Paval said his country would meet NATO’s defense spending target of 2% of gross national product next year and revealed that they were ready for “discussions on spending more if necessary if linked to capabilities.” NATO leaders are expected to adopt a more ambitious defense investment target at their upcoming July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Pavel acknowledged that public opinion in NATO countries had started to tire of the news on the Russia-Ukraine war, but noted that it was the duty of politicians to maintain support for Kyiv. For his part, Stoltenberg said “the will in Europe to continue supporting Ukraine is enormous,” adding that it was...

by Prague Morning Apr 20, 2023

Czech People Rate Current Government as Worst in Decade

The Czech government of conservative leader Petr Fiala (ODS, ECR) has received the worst rating from the Czech population since 2013, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CVVM). The majority of Czech citizens are dissatisfied with the programme, activities, the composition of the government, and how the government communicates with the public. For example, only 24% of the survey participants are satisfied with the composition of the government. Also, 69% of Czechs are dissatisfied with the government’s performance and the cabinet’s communication with the public is assessed negatively by 66%. The current Czech government is composed of five parties – conservative Civic Democrats (ODS, ECR), Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL, EPP), conservative and pro-European TOP 09 (EPP), Mayors and Independents (STAN, EPP) and Czech Pirate Party (Pirates, Greens/EFA). This government which promised to “bring the country back to West” during its election campaign, earned a worse rating than the previous populist and euro-sceptic government of Andrej Babiš (ANO, Renew). Babiš’s party ANO is currently in opposition, preparing for European elections in May 2024. According to another opinion poll – Kantar – the ANO party remains the strongest party in Czechia...

by Prague Morning Apr 19, 2023

Czech Koruna Reaches Its Strongest Point Against Euro in 15 Years

The Czech currency is now the strongest against the euro in over 15 years and the best versus the dollar in more than a year. On Wednesday, it gained 15 haléř against the euro, reaching 23.34 CZK / EUR, the lowest rate since the end of July 2008. The crown gained 27 haléř against the dollar, reaching 21.26 CZK / USD. It last traded higher versus the US dollar in February of last year. This is based on data from the Patria Online server. Since last autumn, when the rate to the euro was about 24.70 CZK / EUR and the rate to the dollar was much higher, the crown has been progressively rising against both major international currencies. The Czech crown achieved its highest level versus the euro since the summer of 2008 in February of this year. The Czech currency suffered a short-term decline versus the euro and the dollar in the first part of March this year, but it has since recovered. The Czech Labour Office published unemployment data today, according to which the share of people without jobs in the Czech Republic fell by two tenths of a percentage point to 3.7% in March compared to...

by Prague Morning Apr 13, 2023

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