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Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s centre-left cabinet on Monday unanimously approved the draft of the 2015 state budget. The proposal envisages a deficit of 100 billion crowns, i.e. 2.3 percent of the GDP, a wage hike for civil servants and a small increase in pensions.

The Czech Agriculture Ministry has announced plans to introduce new legislation which should determine what food products can be labelled as Czech. The ministry believes such legislation would prevent retailers from deceiving consumers, who are increasingly choose domestic products over foreign imports.

The market in home deliveries of foodstuffs – at present dominated by UK retailer Tesco – looks set to hot up, with relative newcomer Rohlík.cz preparing to expand beyond Prague and supply consumers in other Czech cities, the news website Aktuálně.cz reported.

The short lived Czech and Slovak monetary union has been in the spotlight again as the referendum vote on Scottish independence looms on Thursday. A similar currency union allowing Scotland to keep the pound is one of the targets of those backing independence.

In the wake of reduced deliveries of Russian gas to Poland, Slovakia and Austria in recent weeks - the EU’s dependence on Russian gas and finding alternative supplies to boost security has shot up the agenda again. And alongside other European countries heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies, the Czech Republic is taking stock of its reserves and preparing for a possible emergency.

The global e-commerce giant Amazon is planning to build another logistics facility in the Czech Republic. In addition to an existing returns centre and a large warehouse whose construction began last week, Amazon is also looking to build another facility in Central Bohemia, the daily E15 reports.

A candidate for the post of mayor for Prague 5, the Czech News Agency reported this week, has come forward with a novel idea to try and improve public transport in the congested city centre: water trams which would cross from one side of the Vltava River to the other, stopping off at several points. The proposal is reportedly being taken seriously by city’s transit authority.

A brainwave stemming from an unfortunate accident has put a small Czech company on the path of developing international markets for its innovative backpack and stool that offers rest and respite whenever and wherever needed.

Czech arms companies appear to have fallen on hard times. But the promise of increased defense spending at home and abroad and the fact that companies appear to be circumventing a law aimed at squeezing out the arms middlemen gives them cause to hope for more bountiful bottom lines.

Economists are saying that the standard of living should improve for many Czechs based on the state of the economy, which is in surprisingly good shape. Numbers released by the country’s statistics office on Monday suggest there are several reasons to be optimistic.