Business | All stories

For some a cash cow, for others an administrative and legal minefield, public tenders Czech style are a massive but problematic slice of the economy. A fundamental rules change since the start of the year plus a dose of economic growth could help turnaround the struggling sector.

The Czech Republic has taken a big step at removing what has hitherto been seen as one of the biggest initial burdens to creating new companies. The basic capital required for founding firms has been slashed from Kč 200,000 to just Kč 1.

A raft of statistics on Thursday represented good and bad news for the Czech economy with the worst being being that there is little hope for a sharp short term drop in unemployment.

The central bank’s decision to launch forex interventions against the crown last November have won Miroslav Singer the title European central banker of the year by the Financial Times group monthly The Banker, but many Czech producers remain unconvinced it was the right move and consumers fear significant price rises in the coming months.

The Czech Republic and one of its biggest local oil and gas companies is in a battle alongside Russian gas exporter Gazprom against the European Commission. Gas storage rules are the unlikely cause of the dispute.

As far as the big economic picture goes, the incoming coalition government has filled in part of the picture as regards its priorities and promises. But a lot of questions have been left unanswered or up in the air.

The Czech Republic´s top banker has gladly taken the praise awarded him by his international audience for the central bank's audacious foreign currency intervention to push the crown lower. But Czech National Bank governor Miroslav Singer admits assessments of the move will not really be possible until the impact on inflation becomes clearer.

A better than expected performance on the central government deficit for 2013 was announced this week with the final figure for the annual overspend around a fifth better than originally budgeted for. But some economists have warned that the good news might not be as positive as it first seems.

Czech electricity company ČEZ is seeking the maxim time possible to decide on the so called contract of the century to build two new nuclear reactors at its Temelín site. And the two bidders for the contract are looking increasingly impatient.