In Business News this week: unemployment retreats from the feared 10 percent mark; Czech state debt hits a record level; power giant ČEZ says it will shift its investment strategy; a controversial power plant is poised for approval; and financial advisors face a hard sell.
Unemployment falls back to 9.7 percent in March
Unemployment in the Czech Republic fell in March to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in February according to official figures released on Friday. Analysts said the fall was partly due to the start of seasonal work. One of the country’s biggest jobs websites says it witnessed a sharp increase of jobs on offer in March. The manager of the Jobs.Cz and Prace.Cz sites said job offers climbed by 11.0 percent in March compared with a year earlier and was 2.0 percent up on February. The March total of just over 10,400 full time positions needing to be filled is the highest in the last year.
Czech state debt soars to record 1,217 billion crowns
Czech state debt rose to a record 1,217 billion crowns, or around 65 billion US dollars at the end of the first quarter of the year according to the Finance Ministry. This translates into a debt of 116,000 crowns for every Czech citizen. The latest figure is a jump of around 39 billion crowns compared to the level at the end of 2009. The main reason for the increase is the state’s resort to new bond issues to raise cash for ongoing spending without paying back any of its earlier debt. The Ministry of Finance wants to borrow around 280 billion crowns this year.
ČEZ boss says investments will be directed at Czech and Slovak projects
The boss of state-controlled power company ČEZ says it will adjust its investment strategy to focus more on investment at home and neighbouring Slovakia rather than in more distant projects and acquisitions. Martin Roman said in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper that foreign acquisitions would be pared back with investment channelled into nuclear power plant projects in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ČEZ has plans for up to five new nuclear units in both countries. Some of its recent foreign buys, for example in Albania and Bulgaria, have run into problems and ČEZ in any case looks like having less money to spend because of a fall in electricity prices.
Controversial Prunéřov power plant poised for clearance
Prunéřov power plant, photo: Petr Štefek, Wikipedia
Staying with energy, the outgoing Minister of Environment says a controversial coal-fired power plant should be approved in spite of protests from environment groups and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Outgoing minister Jakub Šebesta says there is no reason to refuse ČEZ plans for modernising its Prunéřov plant and his successor says she will also clear the plant if that is the conclusion she finds when taking up the post. Green groups say the plant is a cheaper and less efficient version than could have been constructed if best available technology were used. Micronesia, a federation of low islands, say pollution from the plant will contribute to global warming and rising sea levels.
Financial advisors fail to make an impact
Photo: Štěpánka Budková
Most Czechs appear to be immune at the moment to the offers of specialist financial advice companies. A survey commissioned by one such business found that three out of five Czechs could not name any such companies. Most confused financial advice firms with the services offered by banks and insurance companies. The survey’s sponsor says Czechs are interested in personal financial advice and the problem is for the companies how to better position themselves.
