1. The tax man cometh
(http://www.praguepost.com/business/3253-the-tax-man-cometh.html)
High-level overview of article:
Governments the world over, the Czech Republic included, have spent near record amounts in the past year in an effort to help economies weather the economic crisis. Subsidies, bailouts and lenient social security policies all have a high price, however, and the results are stunning deficits. The Czech Republic has had to make sharp cuts in its public spending, but, on the other side of the balance, taxpayers will be relied upon to raise public revenues. Arthur Braun, a partner of Braun Haškovcová, sat down with The Prague Post to outline what taxpayers can expect in the coming year.
Our take:
Increase of property taxes is indicated which would be bad for Czech property investors.
2. Inflation in December higher than ČNB’s estimate
(http://praguemonitor.com/2010/01/12/inflation-december-higher-%C4%8Dnbs-estimate)
High-level overview of article:
Czech year-on-year inflation in December was 0.5 percentage point higher than estimated by the Czech National Bank (CNB) in its latest forecast, CNB monetary and statistics section head Tomas Holub said Monday.
Our take:
This should prevent further interest rate cuts and hopefully is a sign that the economy is on the recovery.
3.Banks face tough lesson from 2009
(http://cbw.cz/article/banks-face-tough-lesson-from-2009.aspx)
High-level overview of article:
Banks were the main stage players in 2009, globally and in the Czech economy. Criticized by some for tighter loan conditions, praised by others for their soundness, Czech banks are now forced to learn the downturn lesson.
Our take:
Very interesting interview with Lubor Žalman, CEO of Raiffeisenbank. Good to hear this about their lending in 2009: “What we didn’t do well was to distinguish clients who would come out of the crisis stronger and clients who had problems. We adopted one approach toward the whole project; this is what I’m unhappy about. We’d like to change that this year.”
This was a problem of all banks, some of which we saw turn down mortgages for very high earning clients of ours because there was an oversight by the client in payments at one point and the clients had debts under 5000 CZK. Even when they were informed of the debt and these were cleared up the banks refused to give loans to these clients. There needs to be some point based credit system in Czech Republic like other Western countries.
4.Cuts in interest rates in CR are over –Tuma in press
(http://www.financninoviny.cz/english/zpravy/cuts-in-interest-rates-in-cr-are-over-tuma-in-press/422567)
High-level overview of article:
Czech National Bank (CNB) governor Zdenek Tuma does not see another cut in interest rates below the record-low one percent level as too realistic, he said in an interview for today´s issue of daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).
Our take:
Also interesting was quote from Singer of CNB: “Concerns about failures to pay debts made commercial banks raise their risk premiums so when we were cutting rates, final rates were often rather stagnating.” – There should be some way of forcing banks to follow central rate to some degree. Otherwise, as the case in Czech Republic, the main thing the lowering of the central rate did was increase profits for the banks.
5. MPO: Country has overcome crisis
(http://cbw.cz/article/mpo-country-has-overcome-crisis.aspx)
High-level overview of article:
The Czech Republic is among countries that have managed to overcome the global crisis, according to a quarterly analysis of Czech economic development published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) Jan. 12.
Our take:
We will see what the next few months bring as to strength of recovery!
Updated/Aktualizováno: December 9, 2014,