Archive: Business | Business

Czech Republic has taken a top spot in Europe in terms of internet sales, according to data released by the research agency GfK and the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism on Tuesday. More than 43 percent of technical or non-food goods in the country are currently sold online, according to the study.

A major agricultural machinery trade fair got underway in Brno in Sunday. Techagro is the third biggest event of its kind in Europe and is held every two years. The current edition features 720 companies from 37 countries.

Organisers say they expect over 100,000 visitors for the trade fair, which continues until Thursday.

Two years after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Prague, planned investment in the Czech Republic strongly backed by his Czech counterpart Miloš Zeman has fallen well short of the mark.

Almost 80 percent of locally-based companies are disturbed by a recent debate in the Czech Republic about a referendum on leaving the European Union, suggests a new survey. And over a quarter of firms would consider upping sticks if what has been dubbed Czexit were to actually take place, the study indicates.

One of the Czech Republic’s flagship engineering companies, Vítkovice Engineering, has said it has itself proposed insolvency proceedings. The move was indicated Friday by details on the insolvency register.

Vítkovice Engineering early this week appeared to be lined up for a lifeline from the arms company of Czech businessman Jaroslav Strnad. He however announced midweek that he intended to invest in another part of the Vítkovice Group, Vítkovice Heavy Engineering. That move has been approved by a court.

Vítkovice Engineering employs around 650 in and around Ostrava. Many of them have been sent home since January and are waiting for unpaid wages. Operations at the firm have been interrupted because there is not enough cash to pay for raw materials or key components.

The market for health foods, organic, and direct from farm produce took some time to develop in the Czech Republic and there have clearly been some growing pains. Three of the biggest players merged in 2016 to join forces under the Sklizeno brand.

It was meant to be one of the biggest Chinese investments in the Czech Republic. Now a deal giving the Chinese energy giant CEFC a 50 percent stake in the financial company J&T Finance Group looks highly uncertain as do CEFC’s other activities in the country. The company is reported to be in financial straits and its CEO under arrest for economic crime.

The Czech Republic had a 11.9 billion crown surplus in the trade in goods in January 2018. Exports rose by 0.4 percent and imports by 4.2 percent compared with the same month in 2017.

The latest figure is 9.4 billion lower than the surplus during the same month in 2017.

One of the main factors in the diminished surplus was a significant 3.7 billion drop in the exports of vehicles as well as higher deficits in trade of basic metals and agricultural products.

That was offset slightly by a 1.9 billion crown dent in the deficit for crude petroleum and natural gas.

e-commerce has come a long way in the Czech Republic over the last decade and by estimates there are now some 36,000 online stores here. Over the years, services have greatly improved, and Czechs have gotten used to spending more and more at e-shops.

Foreign–based mother companies of some of the Czech Republic’s biggest firms last year claimed the second highest dividend yield from their local assets ever, according to calculations by the business daily E15.