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The harvest of staple crops such as wheat, barley, oats and rye is expected to be lower this year compared to last, according to initial estimates by the Czech Statistical Office. The harvest is estimated to fall by 8.1 percent to 6.955 million tons, mostly because of a decrease of 4.4 percent in yield to 5.57 tons per hectare, and partly due to a decrease in the amount of land used to grow cereals, which fell by 3.9 percent to 1.249 million hectares.

Meanwhile, rapeseed production is expected to rise by 4.9 per cent year-on-year to 1.223 million tons. The amount of land used to grow rapeseed expanded by 10.5 percent to 380,000 hectares, so even with a 5.1 per cent lower year-on-year expected yield of 3.22 tons per hectare, the overall harvest is still estimated to be higher.

The annual pilgrimage festival marking the legacy of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionaries who brought Christianity to the Czech lands, gets underway at Velehrad in South Moravia on Tuesday.

The two-day event, called the People of Goodwill Days, includes a number of cultural events, lectures and is traditionally attended by tens of thousands of believers.

The celebrations will be launched in the evening with a charity concert and will culminate on Wednesday with a national pilgrimage and a celebratory mass.

Prague Airport handled 4.4 million passengers in the first five months of this year, up by about 1.3 million year-on-year and about four million more than in 2021. May was the second month in a row this year when the number of checked-in passengers exceeded one million.

According to Prague Airport statistics, published on Monday, the most frequent flights from Prague are to London, Paris and Milan.

Prague Airport currently offers flights to 152 destinations, five more than last year, with 65 carriers operating the flights. In 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 190 direct flights from Prague.

Conditions in the Czech manufacturing sector deteriorated significantly in June, with the IHS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) dropping to 40.8 points, compared to 42.8 points in May.

Production and new orders fell at the steepest pace in six months, while employment fell at the fastest pace since July 2020. According to experts, the main factor behind the drop is sluggish demand, which failed to recover despite falling prices.

The 50-point index is a dividing line between growth and decline, with a figure above 50 points signalling an overall improvement in the sector. The index tracks production, new orders, employment, delivery dates, and supplies.