Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

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.

Czech Sports Association (ČSTV) chairman Pavel Kořan Thursday denied daily Hospodářské noviny's information that the ČSTV is planning on the demolition of Prague's Strahov stadium and consequent sale of the property grounds. He also called on the state to deal with sports funding and to raise the sports budget.

The four largest banks in the Czech Republic made aggregate net profit of CZK 21bn in the first half of 2010, a year-on-year growth of 9.2%, the banks' first-half results have shown.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic grew to 8.7% in July from 8.5% a month earlier mainly owing to arrival of new school leavers on the labour market, analysts have told ČTK in a poll.

The planned cuts in the state budget the Czech "government of budget responsibility" wants to implement will not mostly affect the health personnel as they receive the money from health insurance companies' payment for health care, doctors' and Health Ministry's representatives told ČTK Thursday.

Czech arms dealer Omnipol has dismissed the criticism by Prime Minister Petr Nečas (ODS) who challenged its mediating role in the purchase of Spanish CASA transport aircraft in a press statement sent to ČTK Thursday.

Czech bank ČSOB, the second largest group in the country by assets, raised H1 net profit by 21% on the year to CZK 7.14 billion, according to consolidated, unaudited results presented to ČTK Thursday.

Shares on the Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP) grew Wednesday, lifted by strong results of Komerční banka, and the market's headline PX index rose 1.36% to 1,205.9 points, data from the bourse showed.

Oil imports to the Czech Republic dropped by 11.3% year-on-year to 7.2 million tonnes in 2009, the Czech Association of Petroleum Industry and Trade (CAPPO) has said in its annual report.

Czech employees earning more than CZK 20,000 a month gross get paid above the average salary, according to a continual median survey on Merces.cz.

The privatisation of Czech banks ten years ago paid off because new owners of large domestic banks earned Kc82.7bn, excluding privatisation costs, over the period, the daily Lidové noviny writes Wednesday.

The Anti-Monopoly Office received in July another anonymous complaint about the purchase of the Spanish CASA transport aircraft by the Czech military, the server euro.cz writes Wednesday.

The 3.5 billion-crown contract Prague has signed for the supply of four Spanish military transport planes CASA will probably be modified at the request of the producer, the EADS consortium, which is a chance for the Czechs to have the price lowered, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes Tuesday.

Construction of a giant underground gas storage facility, which is to be the biggest of its kind in Europe, was Tuesday launched at the uranium mine Rožná in southern Moravia.

The Czech market for commercial real estate will stabilise this year, and next year will already grow, according to company Colliers International which provides commercial real estate consultancy.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek proposes, in his first draft state budget for 2011, to save CZK 58.5 billion on state expenditures and to gain another CZK 20 billion in higher revenues so that the budget gap does not cross 4.6% of GDP, daily Hospodářské noviny reports.

Net earnings of Czech bank Komerční banka (KB) increased to CZK 6.1-6.4bn at end-June from CZK 5.8bn profit in June 2009, analysts polled by ČTK said Monday.