Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

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.

Domestic retail trade has most likely moved past the worst, say analysts, surprised by the substantial 6.6% year-on-year growth in retail sales in June.

The Czech industry confirms a growing revival of the domestic economy and profits mainly owing to a gradual revival of economic activity abroad which leads to higher foreign demand for Czech industrial output, analysts polled by ČTK said Friday.

June fall in building output confirms a long-term trend linked to low demand, experts in construction told ČTK.

The programme of the new Czech centre-right coalition government puts forward a more concrete proposals for solving serious economic problems than the Slovak centre-right coalition government of Iveta Radicová, analyst Richard Duran has said.

The Chamber of Deputies will deal with the draft of the 2011 Czech state budget in the first reading at its session opening on 25 October and it is to vote on the state budget at its session starting on 6 December, Chamber Chairwoman Miroslava Němcová said Friday.

The lower house of parliament is to save CZK 15.6 million this year, including over CZK 9 million on trips abroad, Chairwoman Miroslava Němcová told journalists Friday.

The changes that the new centre-right government plans to make in the Labour Code will help create new jobs and definitely will not reduce employees' rights, Labour Minister Jaroslav Drábek said in response to the criticism trade unions presented Friday.

The Czech National Bank (ČNB) raised its estimate of Czech economic growth in 2010 to 1.6% in its latest forecast from the previous 1.4%, central bank governor Miroslav Singer said at a press conference Thursday.

The restriction of state budget spending alone will not get the Czech Republic out of debt, but on the contrary, it may threaten the state's fundamental functions, the umbrella Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS) says in an analysis of the government's policy statement.

The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry plans to save CZK 11.5 billion in mandatory expenditures in 2011, according to the ministry's data released to CTK.