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A new poll by the Median agency has suggested the voter preference gap between the ruling Civic Democrats and the opposition Social Democratic Party has narrowed. According to the poll, if a national election were held today the right-of-centre Civic Democrats would get 31.5 percent of the vote, while the Social Democrats would secure 34.8 percent of the ballot. The latter party has slipped by around 2 percent. The poll also looked at the position of the smallest party in Parliament, the Green Party, finding if an election were held today the Greens would not pass the obligatory 5 percent threshold needed to make it into the Chamber of Deputies. The Greens, the poll suggested, would come up just short, with 4.7 percent of the vote.

The Czech National Bank has defied the expectations of analysts by leaving the benchmark interest rate at 3.5 percent. Economists believed the bank’s board was preparing to announce a half-point cut in interest rates on Thursday. A day earlier, central banks in a number of countries announced a coordinated interest rates cut in an effort to support economies threatened by the financial crisis. The Czech National Bank is still expected to cut rates at a policy meeting planned for early next month.

Over half the population breathed air containing dangerous levels of carcinogens last year, according to a government study quoted by the news website aktualne.cz. Twenty-two of the Czech Republic’s 31 air measuring stations recorded levels of the chemical benzopyren at above set health limits, the report found. While limits were exceeded on under 5 percent of the country’s territory, 51 percent of the population live in those areas. Benzopyren is created by the burning of coal and oil and in the production of coke and iron. The cabinet is likely to discuss the report next week, aktualne.cz said.

Small post offices will only be closed with the agreement of local authorities, the Czech interior minister, Ivan Langer, said on Thursday. He said he would not give approval to the closure of any branches of the postal service unless the local town hall had assented to the move. Czech Post had been planning to shut down nearly 180 small branches. There are nearly 3,400 post offices around the country, with the postal service employing 37,000 people.