Business News

In Business news this week: the Labour Ministry plans to introduce four-day working week; building output drops nearly five percent; Moody’s lowers ratings for Czech banks; Czech doctors treated more EU patients in 2008; and More than 26 percent of Czechs regularly bet.

Four-day working week to be introduced

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is planning to introduce a four-day working week, with the government reimbursing companies for the salaries of those who will be out of work due to lack of business. The measure is expected to prevent hikes in unemployment and save funds on unemployment benefits. The system will provide support for firms that meet certain requirements, such as no debts towards the state and good outlooks for the future. The plan is not expected to be launched before mid 2010 as several laws need to be amended.

Building output down by 4.8% in H1

Czech building output fell by 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2009 according to government figures released on Wednesday. Building construction dropped by 11.7 percent while civil engineering registered a rise of 16.4 percent. The number of building permits issued in the first six months of this year decreased by 7.7 percent while their volume dropped by 4.9 percent year-on-year. The estimated drop in construction output for the whole of 2009 is not expected to exceed 10 percent.

Construction of new flats down by a fifth in Q2

In related news, the Czech Statistical Office said on Wednesday that construction work on 9,736 new flats, started in the Q2, which represents a decrease of 21.2 percent year-on-year. The largest number of dwellings on which construction work started in Q2 was recorded for flats in apartment houses, whose number totalled 5,055, a decrease of 20 percent compared to the previous year.

Moody’s lowers ratings for Czech banks

Photo: Štěpánka Budková

Moody's Investors Service downgraded on Tuesday the crown deposit ratings of the country’s largest banks – ČSOB, Česká spořitelna and Komerční banka – from Aa3 to A1. Moody’s expects that in the event of a deeper crisis, the Czech National Bank or the state would not be able to help these banks due to the poor state of public finances. The agency therefore downgraded the bank’s crown deposit ratings to the level of Czech state bonds.

Doctors treated more EU foreigners in 2008

Doctors treated 65,732 foreigners in 2008 from the European Union and other countries with which the Czech Republic signed an agreement on social security. That is 5,400 more than in 2007, according to data released by the Centre for International Reimbursements on Wednesday. The total cost of the treatment reached 337 million crowns, or nearly 19 million US dollars, compared to 262 million crowns, or over 14 million dollars, in the previous year. Under EU health care rules, Czech health insurance companies first cover the costs and then get reimbursement from the patients’ home countries. The numbers do not include foreign patients from Russia, Ukraine, the United States and other countries who are not part of the system and have to get insured with commercial health insurance companies.

More than 26 percent of Czechs regularly bet

More than 26 percent of Czechs aged between 12 and 79 regularly place bets and gamble, according to a poll by the Median agency that included nearly 8,000 respondents. The most frequent betters are people aged 40 to 49 of whom more than 36 percent place bets regularly. Also nearly 6 percent of teenagers between 12 and 19 years occasionally place bets. Most of those people – nearly 85 percent – bet in lottery games such as Sportka a Šťastných 10. Some 25 percent of them place bets against sporting odds, while 13 percent of betters buy scratch cards.