Business News

In this week’s Business News: breweries set records in 2015; central bank forced to intervene against firming crown in February; exporters say foreign sales boosted by up to 450 billion crowns due to weak crown; trade balance at record surplus in February; and car showrooms see record business in March.

Czech breweries set production record in 2015

Photo: Khalil Baalbaki

Czech breweries recorded the highest beer production in history last year, for the first time increasing the level of production beyond 20 million hectolitres. The figures represented an increase by 2.2 on the previous year, the Czech Beer and Malt Association said on Thursday. Czech beer exports increased by 13.4 percent to 4.14 million hectolitres, while the import of beer increased by 7.3 percent. Domestic consumption of beer per person dropped by one litre in 2015 to 143 litres.

Low crown policy costs 17 billion crowns in interventions in February

The Czech National Bank spent 17 billion crowns in February intervening on the forex market against the firming crown, according to data released by the bank on Wednesday. The bank launched the interventions in November 2013 with the aim to keep the crown's rate below 27 crowns to the euro. From then until February the Czech National Bank spent around 520 billion crowns on the interventions.

Exporters say low crown pays off with higher sales

Photo: athewma / freeimages

Czech exporters say the central bank’s policy of keeping the crown weak has meant between 400 billion and 450 billion crowns in extra exports in the last two years. The Czech National Bank intervened to bring the crown down to around 27 to the euro in November 2013 and has maintained the policy ever since. The deputy head of the Association of Exporters, Otto Daněk, said on Tuesday that if the bank had not taken action the crown would today stand at around 25 to the euro. Mr. Daněk said Czech exports could this year reach a record of over 4 trillion crowns.

Trade balance at record high in February

The Czech trade balance in February recorded a surplus of 22 billion crowns, a rise of 4.5 billion crowns compared with the same month in 2015. The biggest contributors to the surplus was engineering goods and automobiles with payments for imported mineral oils making a much smaller dent in the surplus due to low oil prices.

Car sales set records in March

Photo: Klára Stejskalová

March saw the highest ever number of car sales in one month in the Czech Republic, according to the Car Importers Association. Almost 23,000 new vehicles were registered in March, a rise of 8 percent on the same month in 2015. Sales for the first quarter were 12 percent up year on year, with the country’s biggest automaker Škoda Auto enjoying a 21 percent increase in sales in that period.