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The number of people out of work in the Czech Republic is lower than at any point in the last six years, according to figures released on Monday by the country’s Office of Labour. In May 465,689 people were jobless, the fewest since June 2009.

According to some media reports, Czech trade relations with Saudi Arabia have hit a hitch because of the Czech head of state’s previous remarks. But the reports have been dismissed as distorted by the Czech prime minister and the recent state of bilateral trade suggests a surge in two-way trade.

Twenty years ago no self-respecting beer drinker in the Czech Republic would be seen dead swigging beer from a can. There was a widespread perception that bottled beer is superior and beer in cans loses its quality, tasting flat and acquiring a metallic tang. That is fast changing and breweries are expanding their packaging capacities to meet growing demand for canned beer.

GE Aviation’s Czech’s unit specializes in the type of turbo-prop engines used by business aircraft and those making fairly short city to city hops. Business was good last year with 80 aero engines sold, an increase of around 30 percent on 2013. That took 2014 turnover to 1.2 billion crowns compared with 860 million crowns in 2013.

The European Commission has lifted a two-year- freeze banning the Czech Republic from accessing funds from the EU’s Operational Program for Enterprise and Innovation. The move was made in connection with a number of dubious public tenders and it left the Czech Republic financing all ensuing projects from state coffers.

The Czech nuclear development plan lays out the broad strategy to build new nuclear reactors but is also seen calling a time out on the decisions when to push ahead with the investment and awarding the construction contract until electricity price developments are clearer.

The PPF Group owned by Czech billionaire Petr Kellner posted a profit of 10 billion crowns last year (the equivalent of around 372 million euros), financial daily Hospadářské noviny reported on Friday. The firm’s profit was 20 percent lower than in 2013.

An annual competitiveness report compiled by the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, puts the Czech Republic 29th on a ladder of sixty-one countries. Its present ranking, four notches higher than last year, confirms a turnaround in the country’s performance which was first reflected in the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum last September.

As the end of the Czech National Bank’s low crown policy draws nearer, the Czech currency is likely to be the target for considerable speculative interest with no common ground on show yet whether the Czech currency is likely to appreciate rapidly or stay more or less on its previous course.

This Sunday, President Milos Zeman has called a meeting at Lany Chateau with the country’s prime minister, finance minister and central bank governor to discuss plans for the speedier adoption of the single European currency. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka revealed the news in an interview for commercial radio station Rádio Impuls on Tuesday. At the same time, he stressed, adoption of the euro was not something which would happen during this political cycle.