News

Weather forecasters on Saturday warned against heavy snow and high winds. The warning of winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour on high ground and heavy snow affects Bohemia from mid-evening and Moravia from around midnight. A level three avalanche risk will apply to the Krkonoš and Jeseník mountains with visitors cautioned to take care. The current cold snap in the country is expected to ease slightly from the middle of next week.

In tennis, Karolína Plíšková will play the first tie for the Czech Republic in the Fed Cup first round match against Canada on Saturday. She will be followed on to the court in the singles duels by Tereza Smítková, according to the draws made in Quebec. Although the Czech Republic is missing top players such as Petra Kvítová and recent Australian Open winner Lucie Šafářová, the Canadians are also without number one player Eugenie Bouchard. The reigning champions, the Czechs, are still reckoned to be favourites to win.

Representatives of the Czech government and judges came to a compromise agreement in their clash over claims for back pay on Friday. Government negotiators agreed to set aside 1.2 billion crowns to pay judges and state part of their claims for three years of back pay. The claims follow a court ruling that the state failed to calculate their pay rates properly from 2009. State payments have been estimated as high as 5 billion crowns to settle the claims. The government will meet on Monday to decide whether to agree the deal.

The Czech central bank has said it is expecting the economy to go into deflation in 2015, a first in the country’s modern history. The weakening euro and falling oil prices are creating "unusually high levels of uncertainty" and adding fresh downward pressure to Czech prices, central bank Governor Miroslav Singer said at a press briefing in Prague. According to the bank the average inflation will go into negative figures, at around - 0.1 percent.