News

The price of cigarettes is expected to grow faster than anticipated in the coming year. Price bulletins show that the price of a pack will rise by eight crowns instead of the announced seven, the daily Pravo writes in its Friday edition. Excise duty on cigarettes will grow from the current 1.64 crowns to 1.92 per cigarette. In previous years producers reacted to price growth by cutting margins. Philip Morris, the dominant player on the market, has changed its strategy and will now raise the margin. Rival companies are preparing to do the same, Pravo says.

Presidential candidate Jan Svejnar has said the Czech Republic should adopt the euro as soon as possible, citing 2012 as a realistic target date. The 55 year old economist who is President Klaus’ sole rival for the post of president, indicated that the centre-right government was overly cautious in its euro-prognosis, and that the Czech Republic would have more to lose by staying outside of the single currency market. The Czech Republic has revised its projected entry date more than once due to a steep public finance deficit. Prime Minister Topolanek has now refused to commit to any specific target date, saying the country must first undergo health and pension reforms.

President Klaus has signed a new foreigners' law tightening the rules under which foreigners can apply for permanent residence or asylum in the Czech Republic. Under the new conditions non-EU foreigners who marry Czech citizens will have to wait two years before being able to apply for permanent residence. The new legislation will take effect on January 1st of 2008 and was timed to coincide with the country's entry to the Schengen border-free zone.

Opinion polls indicate that the opposition Social Democrats have outstripped the ruling party in popularity ratings. The results of a poll conducted by the STEM agency suggest that if elections were held today the Social Democrats would come out the winner with 35 percent of the vote. The ruling Civic Democrats would gain a mere 28 percent, followed by the Communists with 16.5 percent. The ruling party is attributing the sudden slide in popularity to the fact that it has been forced to implement painful reforms. A separate poll conducted by the CVVM agency confirms the turn-about in public support.