The Ministry of Finance has presented its first economic forecast, having also taken into account the war in Ukraine. It has thus significantly worsened its estimate of the Czech economy’s growth this year to 1.2 percent from 3.1 percent in January. At the same time, in comparison to the January estimates, the office expects higher average inflation for this year at 12.3 %. So far this year, it has predicted a price rise of 8.5 percent. Economic growth this year is expected to be driven by government and private sector investment and consumption. At the same time, however, household consumption will be enfeebled by a significant increase in the cost of living, especially energy prices, and the CNB’s (Czech National Bank) tightening monetary policy. For next year, the government body expects economic growth to accelerate to 3.6 percent and the average inflation rate to fall to 4.4 percent. However, the ministry said the estimates are currently very uncertain, mainly because of the impact of the war in Ukraine. “On the one hand, the influx of refugees from Ukraine could ease labor market deficiency and weaken upward pressure on wages growth, but potentially unsuccessful integration could pose a significant social problem...
On July 1, the Czech Republic will take over the six-month presidency of the EU Council, and the motto “Europe as a task” will then replace the current “We will sweeten it for Europe.” What the task is, the government has not yet revealed. In an interview with Czech news outlet Deník N, Minister for European Affairs Mikuláš Bek said that the Czech ambition for Ukraine is for the war-torn nation to become an EU candidate country. According to Bek, there is a second part to the new motto that will be released as a surprise on June 15. What is not surprising is the main task of the Czech presidency: confronting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The fallout from the invasion will likely continue to accelerate as debates surrounding the issue start turning into concrete proposals. “We want the process of Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union to move forward. I cannot say how realistic it is that the European Council will be able to reach an agreement in June on granting candidate status. I would very much like that, but there is still a certain divergence of views. If that does not happen in June, we will do everything...
Economist and former Rector of Brno’s Mendel University Danuše Nerudová has announced her candidacy for president. “I do so after considering all the pros and cons and with all seriousness. We need a head of state who has the ability and energy to stand on the side of the people in economically difficult times. We all deserve hope for better times,” Nerudová said on Twitter on Tuesday. Nerudová, who is 43, will start to collect the 50,000 signatures needed to officially register as a candidate. She highlights that, as a respected economist, it can help bring the Czech Republic out of the economic crisis. At the same time, she wants to improve the situation of the poorest. “I believe in a state where everyone, from young people to seniors, has the hope of a decent life,” said Nerudová. Czechs will be voting for the future head of state in a direct election at the beginning of next year. Former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Petr Pavel, a former high-ranking Czech army and NATO official are regarded as the favorites, but they have not yet officially announced their candidacies. Earlier in May, trade union leader Josef Středula also began collecting...
After all-day talks lasting into the early hours of Tuesday, the European Union agreed on the sixth embargo package against Russia, while Hungary scored a major diplomatic success as it got the exemption on pipeline oil deliveries it requested. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, which provided the institutional framework for the summit, announced the success of the negotiations shortly after midnight. The punitive measures are effective immediately, with two-thirds of Russia’s oil exports to the European Union expected to be affected. French authorities explained that 90 percent of Russia’s oil imports would disappear by the end of the year. Russian oil exports to the EU account for a quarter of the European Union’s total oil imports — they were worth $108 billion (€99 billion) to the Russian economy in 2021 alone. The most controversial element of the sanctions package was the embargo on oil imports from Russia, which was rejected by the Hungarian government. Since top-level EU decisions require unanimity, Hungary was the only member to veto the entire sanctions package. Less loudly and without waving a veto, Slovakia and the Czech Republic did not fully support the oil embargo either, as these two countries, like Hungary, also rely heavily...
The Czech Telecommunication Office (ČTÚ) has prepared a proposal to regulate the Czech mobile phone market, news site Lupa.cz reported on Monday. In its analysis, the regulator argues that retailer mobile service prices, especially when it comes to mobile data, are disproportionately higher than the EU average; collusion, and high wholesale prices (even higher than retail ones) make it impossible for virtual operators to offer competitive tariffs. According to the CTU, a new and fourth nationwide operator, will not enter the market until the end of 2024. “Data wholesale offers not only do not allow access to voice services, which currently still require most customers but also in the case of the theoretical possibility of their integration into one SIM, do not allow the replication of tariffs for MVNOs, “admits the CTU. The Czech mobile operator market is currently composed of three major providers – O2, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. The Office is therefore again proposing to regulate the wholesale market, including the possibility of directly setting maximum prices for the services that network operators sell to virtual machines. This is the CTU’s third attempt to regulate the mobile market in a short time. The first analysis was rejected by the...
The Czech central bank will probably need to raise interest rates again next month, possibly above 6%, if new data confirm persistent inflation risks, according to Governor Jiri Rusnok. The Czech National Bank has lifted borrowing costs by a cumulative 550 basis points in eight steps since June last year. The latest move this month brought the benchmark rate to 5.75%, the highest since 1999. Rusnok said on Sunday that the rate-setting panel will debate how economic data compare with the bank’s latest forecast at the next policy meeting on June 22, which will be his last before his term ends. There is a “very high” probability that rates will rise again if inflation pressures develop as outlined in the bank’s spring projections, the governor said in a debate on public television. Since the forecast was published, data showed consumer prices growing an annual 14.2% in April, more than the central bank expected. When asked whether the benchmark rate will rise above 6% next month, Rusnok said: “It may happen.” The Czechs are experiencing the fastest inflation in nearly three decades as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up energy and raw-materials prices. While the key manufacturing industry grapples with component...
The Chamber of Deputies Speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová recently claimed that because inflation in the eurozone is lower than the 14.2 percent currently seen in the Czech Republic, it is a mistake that we do not have the euro. You would have thought that everyone would have already gotten it by now, but here it is again… Why open a discussion about its introduction again? For the TOP 09 party, it is nothing new under the sun. They are just looking out for their traditional sheep before the municipal elections in Prague. The proposal is harmless because we, as probably all the eurozone members know, do not meet the relevant criteria, but fine, let’s have the debate. First, according to the Eurostat methodology, we do not have inflation of 14.2 percent but 13.2 percent. Moreover, at the end of the table, I find that Switzerland has, by far, the lowest inflation at 2.2 percent. Switzerland, with its certainly completely backward anti-Western orientation, still sticks to the Swiss franc and its monetary policy, and does not want to join the EU. By the way, the Baltic countries are at the forefront of the inflation table with us and have had the euro for...
Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, nearly 348,000 Ukrainians have left the country and fled to the Czech Republic. According to InfoMigrants, tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic have filled vacancies that were earlier difficult to fill. Data from the Czech employment offices has revealed that among those who stayed in the Czech Republic, about 50,000 Ukrainian refugees found jobs in sectors that were in dire need of workers. Now, those who do not work there risk losing welfare benefits as proposed by the government. In March, the Senate of the Czech Republic approved a bill to offer special humanitarian benefits to Ukrainian refugees. The document was quickly signed by the President of the Republic. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic announced that payments for refugees will start on March 21, 2022. In addition, the Czech Movarian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS) warned against recruiting Ukrainian refugees as cheap labour. It was reported that one of the proposed changes is controversial when it comes to health insurance in Ukraine, which will be free only for adults for the first 180 days, thus linking health care...
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová will meet with her Czech counterpart Milos Zeman at the Prague Castle on Friday, the spokesman for the Czech head of state, Jiri Ovcacek, told TASR on Monday. The Slovak President’s spokesman, Martin Strizinec, has confirmed both the visit and the meeting, adding that Čaputová will travel to the Czech Republic to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the assassination of Deputy Protector Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak paratroopers during the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands in WWII. Celebrations will include a reconstruction of the event in Prague’s Libeň district, as well as a ceremonial gathering in the National Museum. The reconstruction of the assassination in Libeň will take place after 10:30 am – the time when parachutists Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš attacked Heydrich’s vehicle. Military aircraft flyovers, including a World War II-era Hawker Hurricane, will take place above the Anthropoid memorial in Libeň after which a commemorative act will be held, the Czech News Agency writes. The two events are a part of a much wider range of commemorations that will be taking place across the Czech Republic during the anniversary. Čaputová paid her first official visit to the Czech Republic in 2019. The Slovak...
The Czech Republic should spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense in 2024, which demonstrates Czech meeting its 2-pecent spending goal a full year before it originally planned, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated after Saturday’s meeting with an expert team that included President Miloš Zeman. “The expert team of the president of the republic, with the participation of the prime minister, discussed economic issues and foreign policy with an overlap with the energy and food crisis,” said Jiří Ovčáček, the presidential spokesman. Fiala reiterated that he would represent Zeman at the June NATO summit in Madrid. The participants also talked about the issues of the upcoming Czech presidency of the Council of the EU, the Russian aggression in Ukraine, and energy security. “We would like one of the topics to be Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, which of course presupposes a peaceful situation in Ukraine,” the prime minister noted. He also identified energy security and the energy policy of the entire Czech Republic as crucial issues. According to Fiala, even those European countries that did not initially subscribe to their alliance commitment of 2 percent of GDP have recently been discussing increasing defense spending. According to him, neutral Austria also plans...
Prices in restaurants are continuously rising. Due to more expensive operations, many restaurants have risen in price by ten to twenty percent in recent months and are preparing to increase further. According to the data available at Aktuálně.cz, before the coronavirus pandemic, the average spend on a restaurant receipt was 50 crowns lower than it is now. Rising prices are also reflected in restaurant attendance. “Practically every week, we receive information from suppliers about rising raw material prices by e-mail,” describes Filip Hausknecht from the Bistro Strecha, which employs homeless people or people after serving a sentence. “Our restaurant has set very low prices from the beginning, and especially margins because one of our goals was to offer plant food at affordable prices. In today’s situation, however, this is unsustainable and we, therefore, plan to raise prices by about eight to ten percent in the coming weeks,” he continues. Roman Meixner, manager of the Prague restaurant Pivo Karlín, speaks similarly. “Since the beginning of the year, due to various factors, it had to increase by about ten percent. We will probably only feel the outflow of customers caused by inflation and the consequent rise in prices,” he notes. The average...
Nearly hours after NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Finland and Sweden submitted their application to join the military alliance, the Czech Republic and Germany were the first NATO members to approve the accession. Notably, after the announcement, the Czech Republic’s government has unanimously approved NATO membership for Finland and Sweden. Taking to Twitter, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he believes both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will pass the accession, as governing parties hold the majority in both chambers of the parliament. The Government of the Czech Republic has unequivocally approved the NATO admission of Sweden and Finland. Now both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate need to do so as well. However, I do not expect any complications. — Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) May 18, 2022 Meanwhile, Berlin said that it remains confident that both the countries will be able to join NATO despite objections raised by other member countries. Notably, Berlin was pointing fingers at Turkey, which blocked the assession. Government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann told reporters in Berlin wants Sweden and Finland to join the alliance as soon as possible. “The German government remains confident that all NATO members will support this entry, that it can take place...
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