Morning News: Tuesday, November 15, 2022

COVID-19 could soon be removed from the list of diseases requiring compulsory isolation, Czech Health Minister Vlastimil Valek (TOP 09) told journalists on Saturday, speculating that this might happen in the first half of 2023.

The autumn food collection, which took place in some 1,400 shops across the Czech Republic on Saturday, gathered 520 tonnes of food, drugstore and hygiene products, 89 tonnes more than at the similar event in the spring, according to Veronika Lachova, director of the Czech Federation of Food Banks.

The average interest rate on newly granted mortgages in Czechia was 5.86 percent in October, up slightly from the 5.83 percent seen the previous month. These rates are the highest recorded in 20 years.

Opposition leaders ANO would have come first in elections held at the turn of this month with 26.5 percent of the vote, suggests a poll by the Kantar CZ agency for Czech Television. This represents a fall of 3 percent on the last such survey a month earlier.

Czech real wages fell almost 10% in the second quarter, according to the latest data, and some central bankers see diminishing risks of a wage-inflation spiral. The central bank has forecast nominal wages to rise 6.3% in 2022 and 7.7% in 2023, but to fall 9.4% and 1.2%, respectively in real terms.