News

Prague City Hall is set to open a tender worth an estimated 2.47 billion crowns for a major geotechnical survey tied to the planned completion of the inner ring road. City councillors approved the move on Tuesday. Roughly eleven kilometres of the ring still remain unfinished, stretching from the Blanka tunnel’s Pelc-Tyrolka exit to Štěrboholy. The project also includes the Libeň Connector, slated to link the route with the D8 motorway.

New figures show that authorities in Czechia issued just over 45,800 building permits between January and September of this year- nearly ten thousand fewer than in the same period last year, the CTK news agency reported. The slowdown is attributed to a botched digitalisation procedure that has complicated the approval process. Experts warn that this could deepen the shortage of properties on the market and further boost price growth.

Five laureates from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine were honored with the Memory of Nation Award for their courage and integrity in standing up to totalitarian regimes. Among this year’s recipients are 92-year-old Milena Sedláčková who spent two years in a communist prison, Jaroslav Vrbenský, 93, who was jailed for over a decade for aiding persecuted priests and Nadija Kalinčenková, 73, who supports displaced Ukrainians and weaves camouflage nets for the country’s defenders.

According to the European Commission, the Czech economy will grow by 2.4 percent this year, and will then slow to 1.9 percent in 2026. The main driver of growth is expected to be private consumption, resulting from rising real wages and a lower household savings rate. The Commission stated this on Sunday in its autumn economic outlook.

The European Commission also improved its forecast for EU economic growth for this year and for 2026 to 1.4 percent. In its previous spring forecast, it had estimated this year’s growth at 1.1 percent. It also raised its estimate for economic growth in 2027 by 0.1 percentage point, to 1.5 percent.