Archive: Business | Business

Due to the chronic labour shortage, Czech economic growth will slow to 3.6 percent this year and to 3.3 percent in 2019, the Czech Chamber of Commerce says in a new forecast.

The prediction is based on data from the retail bank Česká spořitelna and the chamber’s own surveys.

By June 2019 there could be half a million unfilled positions, about 60,000 more than today, according to the chamber, which has been lobbying the government to double the annual quota for workers from Ukraine to 40,000 to help fill the gap.

Vegetable imports to the Czech Republic continue to grow, the Czech News Agency reported this week. According to data from the Czech Statistics Office, the foreign vegetable trade currently shows a deficit of 11 billion crowns.

As the United Arab Emirates continue to lower their country’s economic dependency on oil, new opportunities are on the rise. Czech companies, for whom the UAE are the biggest trading partner in the Persian Gulf, see the upcoming EXPO 2020, a Universal Exposition to be held in Dubai in two years’ time, as a great opportunity to extend trade relations. This week saw a special trade mission, made up of Czech companies, travel to the UAE and explore prospective business deals.

Czech customers spent some 19.5 billion crowns on purchases from foreign e-shops and on online booking of air-tickets and accommodation in the first six months of 2018.

Legislation came into effect at this time last year aimed at removing thousands of billboards standing by motorways and first class roads across the Czech Republic. However, 12 months later the majority of such advertisements are still in place.

The Czech Outdoor advertising agency has promised to remove all its roadside billboards by the end of September, according to Transport Ministry spokesman Jakub Stadler.

This is in line with a 2017 law which bans advertisement billboards within 250 meters from main roads and highways for safety reasons.

The legislation met with strong opposition from outdoor advertising operators some of whom attempted to bypass it by replacing advertisements with gigantic Czech flags and other non-commercial posters.

According to the ministry close to a thousand billboards still have to be dismantled.

Czechs spent 51.5 billion crowns in e-shops in the first half of the year, 11 per cent more in annual terms. Growth slowed during hot weather, which came to the Czech Republic in April.

Overall spending is expected to rise, as since last year the Czech Republic has the largest number of e-shops in Europe per capita, while brick and mortar stores increasingly offer goods online. In 2017 e-shop sales grew 18 per cent to 115 billion.

The second-largest online grocer in the Czech Republic, Rohlik.cz has reported its first annual profit since its establishment in 2014, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday. The retailer expects to see a turnover of 2.5 billion crowns in 2018 and plans to double that figure next year.

The Czech Credit Bureau reports that the number of bankruptcies among small Czech entrepreneurs is the lowest in five years.

According to statistics there were 60 company bankruptcies in the month of July and 377 bankruptcies of small entrepreneurs which is 108 less than in the preceding month.

The drop in bankruptcies among small entrepreneurs is ascribed to the healthy economy, higher wages and growing demand for their products and services both from companies and individuals.

Dozens of Czech families who made payments on new apartments in the 1990s found themselves high and dry when the building firm involved collapsed. Now they have been ordered to evacuate their homes forthwith after losing a long-running legal battle, a verdict that has come in for broad condemnation.