Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

The Czech National Bank disagrees with the Convergence Report issued by the European Central Bank in which the ECB assesses the economic and legislative convergence of nine EU members, CNB Spokesman Marek Petruš told ČTK yesterday.

Czech pension funds' Q1 profit grew by CZK 255 million to CZK 1.14 billion year-on-year, according to data the Pension Funds Association (APF) presented to ČTK yesterday.

Sales of new computers in the Czech Republic rose by 8% to 288,516, mainly thanks to notebooks whose sales jumped by 18% to 208,596, analytic company Gartner said yesterday.

Gas distributor Východočeská plynárenská will pay a dividend worth CZK 772 per share from last year's profit, which is CZK 468 more than in 2009, shareholders decided yesterday at the company's general meeting.

Czech oil and chemicals group Unipetrol is expected post a net profit of between CZK 250 million and CZK 300 million for the first quarter of 2010, a year-on-year improvement, analysts have told ČTK in a poll.

Unadjusted revenues from services dropped by 3.8% on the year between January and March this year, the biggest fall seen for professional, scientific and technical services, the Czech Statistical Office announced yesterday.

The number of guests at accommodation facilities rose by 0.5% year-on-year to 2.2 million in Q1 this year, while the number of overnight stays fell 1.2% to 6.9 million, the Czech Statistical Office said.

Metrostav will distribute CZK 170 million in dividend from its 2009 profit, according to a decision by the company's general meeting, the company said in a press release yesterday.

Yesterday's data on April inflation indicate that the inflation rate will grow up to 2% in summer, which analysts polled by ČTK have assigned to a gradual economic revival.

Czech year-on-year inflation in March was 0.2 percent point higher than the Czech National Bank predicted in its latest forecast, Tomáš Holub, head of the CNB's monetary and statistical section, told ČTK yesterday.

As the Czech industry begins to pick up, unemployment decreased to 9.2% in April from 9.7% in the previous month, which is a good sign, analysts polled by ČTK said yesterday.

Current incomes of Czech households fell by 2.2% last year while their expenditures stagnated, according to an analysis the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry is to submit to the government today.

The volume of movable property leasing by members of the Czech Leasing and Finance Association (CLFA) fell by almost 20% year-on-year to CZK 8.34 billion in the first quarter of this year, the CLFA said in a press release Friday.

Analysts polled by ČTK have agreed that the Czech industrial growth in March shows that activity in economy is picking up but that the industry is driven mainly by a fragile foreign demand.

Friday's data on the Czech Republic's foreign trade surplus of CZK 18.3 billion show that the situation of the domestic economy is improving, analysts polled by ČTK said.

Czech retail sector is showing glimmers of hope but retailers are going to see a fall in sales this year albeit not such a notable one as last year, according to comments by analysts on retail sales data for March released by the Czech Statistical Office Friday.

The number of employed people in the Czech Republic decreased by 68,000, or 1.4%, to 4,943,300 at the end of last year, according to an analysis the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry is to submit to the government today.

Finance Minister Eduard Janota will propose spending cuts and higher taxes for the 2011 state budget to raise budget funds by around CZK 40 billion, he said in Czech Television's discussion programme yesterday.

The Czech Republic should hold back at any cost from paying for damage in eurozone countries that may find themselves in a similar situation as Greece, President Václav Klaus says in Monday's issue of the weekly Týden.

The Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP) decreased at the close after the morning rise on Thursday, its headline PX index closing 1.22% weaker at 1,180.2 points, according to data from the bourse.