Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

Car maker Škoda Auto will suspend production at its plant in Mladá Boleslav and partly in Vrchlabí on Thursday from 2pm due to a lack of car parts, the company's spokesman Jaroslav Černý told ČTK.

By voting confidence in the government, the Chamber of Deputies granted it a mandate to cut budget deficit, one of the government's key tasks, analysts polled by ČTK said.

Czech firms exported goods worth a record CZK 1.738 billion to Iraq in the first half of this year, three times more than in the same period a year ago, the Czech Statistical Office announced yesterday.

The number of foreigners employed in the Czech Republic started to fall after two months to 216,735 at end-July, 1,727 foreigners fewer on the month, according to data of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The government yesterday approved a document which says that the country needs CZK 34.1 billion to build sewage treatment plants and sewage systems in line with the EU directive, government spokesman Martin Kupka told ČTK.

The government has decided to release CZK 350 million from the budget reserve for removal of the damages inflicted by the weekend floods, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said yesterday.

The Interior Ministry has attained a CZK 2.2 billion relief in the planned 2011 budget cuts, Interior Minister Radek John told reporters

Gross spending on Internet advertising in the Czech Republic grew by 24% year-on-year to CZK 1.96 billion in the first half of 2010, ARBOinteractive has said.

Czech breweries saw their H1 output decrease by 10% due to a January growth in excise duty.

The number of foreign tourists visiting the Czech Republic is on the rise again, CzechTourism said.

The energy company ČEZ will not place a bid in a tender to sell state-run Polish utility Energa, ČEZ board chairman and chief executive Martin Roman said at a press conference yesterday without elaborating.

The state-owned energy company ČEZ saw net profit fall by 18.5% year-on-year to CZK 28.7 billion in the first half of this year mainly owing to a drop in prices of sold electricity, ČEZ management said at a press conference yesterday.

The number of tourists' overnight stays in Czech accommodation facilities fell by 0.9% year-on-year to 8.8 million in the second quarter of 2010, the Czech Statistical Office said yesterday.

Mechanical cuts in the budget of the Interior Ministry may eventually cost the Czech Republic dear, minister Radek John told yesterday's issue of daily Právo in connection with the weekend floods in north Bohemia.

Detergents manufacturer Bochemie Group raised sales by 10% to a record CZK 570 million in the first half of this year, the company's chief executive Ladislav Kraus told ČTK yesterday.

The Czech Republic received CZK 22.7 billion more from the EU budget in the first half of the year than it paid back, the Finance Ministry told ČTK yesterday.

Czech consumer prices will be growing modestly in the coming months, depending on the global grain crop situation and whether inflation stays under control boosting economic upturn, analysts polled by ČTK said yesterday.

Further development of unemployment in the country is very hard to predict as, in particular fresh school graduates, are responsible for the July growth in the jobless rate, analysts polled by ČTK agreed.

The state-owned power producer ČEZ will post an increase in sales by CZK 2-4 billion to about CZK 98 billion for the first half of this year while its net profit will fall by about 10% to CZK 29 billion due to lower electricity prices, analysts polled by ČTK said yesterday.

Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Jaromír Drábek said yesterday that he expects the jobless rate to grow again to more than 9% towards the end of the year.