Finance ministry ups economic growth forecast

The Czech finance ministry has released a new forecast for the Czech economy which predicts that the country will continue to achieve strong levels of growth. The new prediction of 4.9% growth is up by 0.2% from previous predictions. In 2009, the ministry forecast growth of around 5.1%. However, inflation, which remains a key concern across the world, is expected to remain high at 6.5%, a considerably higher figure than the 2.8% rate of last year. Unemployment is also predicted to fall slightly to 4.2% with a rate of 3.6% predicted for 2009.