In Business News: fuel prices in Czech Republic fifth lowest in Europe; Jan Řežáb of Socialbakers makes Forbes 30 under 30 list; number of bankruptcies up in 2014; inflation at lowest level since 2003; Czech e-shops post record sales for 2014.
Fuel prices in Czech Republic fifth lowest in Europe
Photo: Tomáš Adamec
Fuel prices in the Czech Republic are currently the fifth lowest in Europe, according to figures released by UAMK, one of the country’s biggest motoring organisations. The cheapest gasoline can be bought in Estonia, Poland, Luxembourg and Latvia, and the most expensive in Italy. Gasoline and diesel prices started to decline in autumn last year due to falling prices of crude oil on world markets. The average price of gasoline in the Czech Republic dropped by 4.27 crowns to some 30 crowns per litre year-on-year, while the average price of diesel decreased by 4.97 crowns to 32.12.
Jan Řežáb of Socialbakers makes Forbes 30 under 30 list
Jan Řežáb, photo: archive of Socialbakers
Jan Řežáb, the founder of Socialbakers, a Czech firm providing social media network statistics and brand analysis, has been included on the 30 under 30 list of young innovators, put together by the US Forbes magazine. The 27-year old Řežáb is the first Czech to be included on the list. Forbes has praised his Prague-based company for having the largest social-media data pool of any social analytics company. Socialbakers currently employs around 300 people and runs 11 offices across the globe.
Number of bankruptcies higher in 2014
Photo: Czech Television
The number of bankruptcies in the Czech Republic reached 2,403 in 2014, which is 179 more than in the previous year, the debt consultancy Creditreform said this week. It is the highest number of bankruptcies filed since 2008, when the new law on insolvency came into force. The number of bankruptcies of self-employed entrepreneurs increased by 261 to 1,110, while the number of corporate bankruptcies fell slightly to 1,293.
Inflation in 2014 at lowest level since 2003
Photo: Jan Rosenauer
The average inflation rate for 2014 fell to 0.4 percent from the previous year’s figure of 1.4 percent, according to figures released by the Czech Statistical office this week. It was the lowest rise in consumer prices seen in the Czech Republic since 2003 and the second lowest in the country’s history. Consumer prices in December went down by 0.1 percent compared to the previous month, mainly due to dropping prices of fuel.
Czech e-shops post record sales for 2014
Photo: European Commission
Czech internet retailers in 2014 registered record sales of up to 68 billion crowns. That figure is 16 percent higher than in the previous year, according to estimates released by the electronic commerce association APEK. Internet stores currently account for more than seven percent of the overall retail turnover, which is a year-on-year increase by one percentage point. The number of e-shops on the Czech market grew by 200 compared to the previous year to some 37,200.
