Business News

In this week’s Business News: police seek charges over Blanka tunnel; Czechs bet on future; fewer jobless and more jobs; state debate loans for miner OKD; and the central bank spends around 11 billion crowns in April in undermining the crown.

Prague Police recommend charges over Blanka tunnel

Photo: Filip Jandourek, Czech Radio

Police in Prague have recommended that charges be pressed against a City Hall official in connection with the Blanka tunnel construction project, Czech Television reported on Thursday. Jan Beránek, the one-time head of a City Hall investments department, is accused of agreeing to an overpriced contract that caused over 30 million crowns of damage to the city. The Blanka tunnel was opened last year, four years behind schedule and around 10 billion crowns over-budget.

More bets but lower takings for betting companies

Czechs last year placed bets totalling 152.2 billion crowns. That’s a rise of just over 10 percent on the previous year. Winnings paid out from bets came to almost 122 billion crowns, an increase of just over 14 percent, leaving the betting companies with outright earnings of just over 30 billion. According to the Czech Ministry of Finance that is around a billion crowns down on the 2014 results.

Unemployment drops to 5.4 percent in May

Photo: Filip Jandourek, Czech Radio

The jobless rate in the Czech Republic in May dropped to 5.4 percent from April’s 5.7 percent. The overall number of unemployed has fallen to just under 395,000, that’s the lowest total since January 2009. The number of vacancies being offered through the national labour office stands at just over 129,000. That is the highest total since October 2008. The office expects the jobless total to continue shrinking in the coming months.

Industry minister says 1 billion crown loan possible for OKD

The state should lend bankrupt mining company OKD up to 1 billion crowns, the minister of industry and trade, Jan Mládek, said on Wednesday morning. A day earlier Finance Minister Andrej Babiš said he was looking into the conditions under which the state could make loans to OKD. Mr. Babiš put forward a figure of 400 million crowns that the firm would need to keep operating until August; however, Mr. Mládek said he did not know how his cabinet colleague had arrived at that amount. The industry minister said that only the state would risk making a loan to OKD but there was no 100-percent guarantee it would be repaid.

Czech National Bank spends 11 billion crowns in April on low crown

Photo: Štěpánka Budková

The Czech National Bank intervened on the foreign exchange market to the tune of 11 billion crowns in April in order to combat the growing strength of the Czech crown, according to figures it released on Tuesday. This brings to 530 billion crowns the total amount the central bank has spent on euros since November 2013, when it first intervened in a bid to keep the crown at around 27 to the common European currency. Last month the board of the Czech National Bank said it would probably maintain its weak crown policy until the middle of next year.