In Business News this week: Czech National Bank announces prolonged forex intervention until second half of 2016; Czech firm Excalibur Army to provide tanks for Iraq; nearly 25,000 new firms established in Czech Republic last year; 47 percent of Czechs in favour of relaxing limits on coal mining; Czech Airlines to launch signature aroma.
Czech National Bank to continue forex intervention by second half of 2016
Miroslav Singer, photo: Filip Jandourek
The Czech National Bank has announced it will continue intervening against the Czech crown to keep the exchange rate at around 27 crowns per euro at least until the second half of 2016. The governor of the Czech National Bank, Miroslav Singer, announced the decision at a press conference after the meeting of the governing board on Thursday. The bank previously declared that the low crown regime will end by 2016. The Bank Board also announced that it was ready to depreciate the crown even further in case it was necessary. According to Mr Singer, the potential weakening of the crown will depend mainly on the effectiveness of measures against deflation taken by the European Central Bank.
Czech firm to provide tanks and armoured vehicles to Iraq
Illustrative photo: Excalibur Army archive
The Czech firm Excalibur Army is set to provide around a hundred tanks and armoured vehicles to Iraq to help with the fight against Islamic radicals, the website Aktualne.cz reported on Friday. The contract has been approved by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defence and interior ministries. According to Excalibur Army’s owner, Jaroslav Strnad, it is one of the most significant contracts in the company’s history, amounting to hundreds of millions of Czech crowns. The first shipment has been received by Iraqi arms experts this week.
Nearly 25,000 new firms established in Czech Republic last year
Illustrative photo: Filip Jandourek
Nearly 25,000 new firms were founded in the Czech Republic last year, the highest number since 2007, according to a study by the Bisnode consultancy released this week. The total number of companies increased by five percent and now exceeds 400,000. Nearly 50 percent of all the newly registered firms were established in Prague. According to the analysts, the renewed interest in establishing companies is a sign that the Czech economy is recovering.
Poll: 47 percent of Czechs in favour of easing coal-mining limits
Illustrative photo: Filip Jandourek
Nearly half of Czechs support the easing of limits on brown coal mining in the country, according to a survey conducted by the STEM agency this week. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would support relaxing the limits while 17 percent were against it. A fifth of respondents said they were in favour of searching for new brown-coal deposits. The Minister of industry and trade, Jan Mládek, in January sparked a heated debate after proposing a partial lifting of limits on lignite mining on north Bohemia.
Czech Airlines to launch signature aroma
Photo: Tomáš Adamec
Czech Airlines is planning to launch its own signature aroma as part of the company’s branding strategy. The press spokesman for the Czech Airlines, Daniel Šabík, told the Hospodářské noviny daily on Friday that the company has been considering using a unified “eau d’aeroport” that would be sprayed in aircraft cabins in all their planes. Signature aroma has become increasingly popular in recent years with hotels and retail chains. A number of other carriers, such as Delta Airlines, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines, have already launched their individualised fragrances.
