Top Czech Business News - Prague Daily Monitor

Czech state budget deficit decreased to CZK 69 billion at end-July from June's CZK 75.7bn and the gap is also lower in annual terms, the Finance Ministry said Monday. The state budget showed a deficit of CZK 76.2bn in the same period last year. The budget has been approved with CZK 162.9bn gap for this year. In July alone the state budget was CZK 6.7bn in the black, while in July 2009 it posted a deficit of CZK 7.9bn.

Supermarkets started losing their popularity in the recent years owing to the arrival of hypermarkets and their market share is falling, according to a research made by the company Incoma GfK.

Cuts in the state's spending alone will not release the Czech Republic from debt, even though the government does not like to hear such talk, Jan Macháček writes in the latest issue of weekly Respekt out Monday.

Loans at least 90 days overdue rose by 0.23 percentage point to 6.04% of all loans in the Czech Republic at end-June, the Czech National Bank said Friday.

Czech banks provided CZK 38.5bn worth of mortgage loans to households in H1 of the year, an annual drop of 3%, and Q2 mortgages stood at CZK 22.51bn, up 2.2% on the year, the Local Development Ministry said Friday.

Only transport projects in the Czech Republic whose suppliers will offer sufficiently large price cuts will continue, Transport Minister Vít Bárta said in a debate on Czech Television Sunday.

The Czech Letecké opravny Malešice (LOM) aircraft repairer has won NATO's tender for the upgrading of four Mi-17 Russian-made helicopters for Hungary and Bulgaria worth some CZK 250 million, the Czech Television has reported.

Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra has doubts about the planned construction of a hotel and accommodation facility in the Central Military Hospital in Prague costing CZK 2.6 billion, he told Czech Television Sunday.

The number of public auctions in the Czech Republic grew by roughly a fifth year-on-year to 1,453 in the first half of this year, according to statistics on public auctions on www.centralniadresa.cz.

Pivovar Svijany, the largest brewery in the Liberecký region, made a record profit of over CZK 167m last year, up 73% against 2008, and sales from beer and services rose by 28% to CZK 634m, according to the company's annual report.

Debts of Czech households at banks and financial institutions rose by CZK 6.55bn to CZK 1,011bn in June and year-on-year were CZK 77.9bn higher, the Czech National Bank said Friday.

Czech bank Česká spořitelna saw its consolidated net profit fall by 6.8% year-on-year to CZK 5.88bn in the first half of 2010, the company said Friday.

Car maker Škoda Auto raised operating profit by 40.6% year-on-year to around CZK 5.9 billion in the first half of 2010, the company said yesterday.

Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH) netted CZK 522 million on CZK 7.22 billion sales in 2009, revenues from sales of electricity, gas and heat at nearly CZK 4 billion, Lidovky.cz reported yesterday.

Education Minister Josef Dobeš (Public Affairs, VV) yesterday said he would not lower teachers' pay and therefore his ministry will save maximally CZK 1.5 billion by end-2010, a mere half of what it is supposed to save according to an austerity plan the government approved on Wednesday.

A total of 12,644 new companies were established in the Czech Republic in the first half of 2010, a year-on-year growth of 10%, according to data of Česká kapitálová informační agentura.

The planned cuts of CZK 17 billion in the budget of the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure next year and this year's revenue shortfall worth almost CZK 4 billion may result in halting of most transport infrastructure projects as of August, ministry spokesman Karel Hanzelka told ČTK yesterday.

The cabinet yesterday approved the freezing of expenditures of individual ministries worth CZK 10.2 billion, Prime Minister Petr Nečas told journalists after a cabinet meeting. Despite the opposition by Public Affairs (VV), a minor coalition partner, the center-right government approved the proposal by Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) unanimously.

Nine largest shoe retailers saw their sales fall to CZK 6.3 billion last year from a record CZK 6.7 billion posted in 2008, according to TextilZurnal.

Insurance companies collected premiums worth CZK 76.4 billion in H1, up by 8.1% on the year, the Czech Insurers' Association told ČTK yesterday.