Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

Transport Minister Vít Bárta will in the coming days meet with representatives of building companies to discuss legal aspects of the halting of transport projects.

The capital's debt fell by 16.5% to CZK 26.8 billion between 2006 and 2009, which corresponds to around CZK 21,451 per capita, according to data of the City Council and the Czech Statistical Office.

The government, in an effort to regulate foreign workforce's stay, wants to partly transfer the payments for jobless foreigners to the agencies that "imported" them to the country, a measure that will probably backfire on foreign workers, daily Hospodářské noviny reports.

Czech coal mining decreased in H1, brown-coal production falling by 6.3% on the year to 21.35 million tonnes and black-coal production down by 0.5% to 5.56 million tonnes, while briquette and coke production increased, the Industry Ministry has said.

The state-run rail operator Czech Railways made CZK 21m profit in H1, an improvement of CZK 78m yr/yr, thanks to savings and higher sales, the firm said Thursday.

Atlantik finanční trhy, the fourth largest securities dealer on the Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP), made a CZK 32m pre-tax profit in the first half of this year, down 24% year-on-year, the company told ČTK Thursday.

Czech civil servants will see their base pay drop by 10% as of next year under the proposal worked out by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry of Jaromír Drábek (TOP 09).

The Czech government Wednesday approved a subsidy worth CZK 1.9bn for agriculture projects, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said at a press conference Wednesday.

The Czech Defence Ministry's budget in 2011 will probably be CZK 5 billion lower than this year and the sum designed for wages will drop by 10 percent as part of the austerity measures planned by the centre-right government.

South Bohemia councillors would like the numerous unused and dilapidated farm buildings such as cow and pig sheds and barns in the ČR to be reconstructed for new, mainly tourist purposes with the help of EU subsidies, daily Lidové noviny writes Wednesday.

The Czech Republic has to save CZK 250 billion to CZK 300 billion before the launch of the planned pension reform, the ČMKOS umbrella trade unions conclude in their analysis of the recently released policy statement of the new government of Petr Nečas.

Fuel replacement was completed in the first reactor of nuclear power plant Temelín, southern Bohemia, Wednesday as fuel from US company Westinghouse was replaced by fuel from Russian firm TVEL.

Czechs paid nearly CZK 47 billion in cash payments for health care services and products in 2009, or 71% more than in 2005 when it was over CZK 27 billion, the daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) writes Tuesday.

Passenger numbers at Prague's Ruzyně airport fell by 0.26% year-on-year to 5,121,000 in the first six months of this year, airport operator Letiště Praha said on its website Tuesday.

A total of 412 joint-stock companies have decided to squeeze out minority shareholders in the Czech Republic since July 2005 for which they have paid CZK 16.49 billion, Česká kapitálová informacni agentura (ČEKIA) agency told ČTK Tuesday.

Czech Transport Minister Vít Bárta is pondering over raising of tolls for lorries and prices of motorway stickers and at the same cutting charges in railway freight transport, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) said Tuesday.

A total of 325,581 guests visited Czech spas in H1 2010, which is a rise of 5% against the same year-ago period, the agency CzechTourism said in a press release Tuesday.

Czech industrial producer prices grew by 2.3% in July year-on-year against 2% in June, while in month-on-month comparison they remained unchanged, the Czech Statistical Office said Monday.

Czech import prices rose by 4.9% and export prices by 2% year-on-year in June, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said Monday.

Real estate firm VGP generated H1 profit of EUR 9.7m against loss of EUR 11.7m in the same year-ago period and gross lease income grew by 44.7% to EUR 13.5m, the firm said in a press release Monday.