News

It should be mainly overcast in Czechia on Thursday, with an average high temperature of 24 degrees Celsius. Clear skies are expected at the weekend.

The minister of finance, Zbyněk Stanjura, says there is a good chance his ministry will keep this year’s budget deficit at the planned level of CZK 295 billion. Speaking after a session of the lower house’s Budget Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Stanjura said that planned revenues would be maintained, albeit in a different structure.

The minister told reporters he would need to make savings of CZK 15 billion to CZK 20 billion in current expenditures by the end of the summer, adding that he regarded that as feasible. Mr. Stanjura said he had submitted his plans to other cabinet members and talks would end in mid-August.

The Czech rescue services say people of 25 nationalities were travelling on two buses involved in a fatal crash on the D2 motorway near Brno on Monday. There were no Czechs on either bus, they said. The driver of one of them, a foreigner with residence in Czechia, was killed in the collision.

Seventy-six people were hurt, with 14 suffering serious injuries. Two patients have undergone operations; the rest are in a stable condition or have been released from hospital.

Virtually the whole of Czechia is currently suffering from drought, according to official data. Ninety-eight percent of the country is currently hit by one of five levels of drought alert, with the most affected regions being central and northeast Moravia. On Sunday the two highest drought alert levels were in place on 35 percent of Czechia.

Experts say drought levels have fallen in some parts of Bohemia in the last week. This pattern should be followed in Moravia in the coming week, they say.