Prague

Contrary to very good economic results and market shares developments, bond and stock issues are a totally unusual way of financing in Czech business environment - a survey carried out by the Prague University of Economics (VSE) has revealed.

“Companies use as traditional methods as bank loans or use their own resources. Issuing new shares or bonds is a totally rare move,” Eva Kislingerova of VSE said.

“The 80 percent of firms using their own resources for long-term financing of their operation is stunning,” she said, adding it indicates that Czech companies had created huge reserves that they are using now this way.

There have been very suitable conditions for raising new financial resources in other ways, but businesses did not use them, she added.

The respondents in the survey were 252 Czech companies in the manufacturing industry, especially firms with more than 250 employees.

The Czech crown gained to an all-time high of Kc25.09/EUR this morning boosted by the excellent GDP growth for 2007, and also set a record to the dollar at Kc17.12/USD, Patria Finance analyst Tomas Vlk told.

Then the crown weakened to Kc25.20/EUR and Kc17.20/USD where it stood after 9:30 a.m.

Read more »

Prague bourse recorded major gains again at the close of Wednesday’s session and was erasing its previous losses, with the headline index PX up 3.01 percent at 1,569.9 points.

Analysts suggested already on Tuesday that the situation has returned to normal for the most part after hefty losses at the beginning of the year. Wednesday’s trading confirmed it.

Read more »

Czech economy grew by 6.1 percent last year after a record growth of 6.4 percent in 2006, analysts polled by Czech Press Agency said.

In Q4 alone GDP growth is projected by analysts to have slowed to 5.2-5.7 percent from 6 percent in Q3 on a slower growth of household consumption due to higher inflation. Still, however, household consumption was the main driving force of the country’s economy.

Analysts share the opinion of the Czech National Bank and the Finance Ministry.

In the most recent forecasts, the two institutions put last year’s economic growth at 6.1 percent, while in 2006 and a year earlier the economy grew by a record 6.4 percent.

GDP data will be published by the Czech Statistical Office on Friday. It will be a flash GDP estimate and analysts say that one should be cautious about such figures because all economic data for December have not been available yet.

Read more »

Sales of films on DVD in the Czech Republic grew by 13 percent to a record 2.464 million last year, according to data of DVD Group.cz.

Sales in the Czech Republic and Slovakia grew by 14 percent to 2.95 million DVDs last year. In addition to this, nearly 60 million DVDs were distributed with newspapers, which experts say did not affect sales of premium films on DVD.

“After a period of decline and stagnation in DVD video sales in the years 2005 and 2006, the year 2007 is characterised as a period of growth and breaking records in sales,” Pavel Borowiec of DVD Group.cz. said

The increase came thanks to the sale of films on DVD in shops which grew by 18 percent on the year. In contrast, supplies to video shops fell by 8 percent.

Read more »

A total of 22,507 companies were set up in the Czech Republic last year, up 27 percent against 2006 and the highest number in the last five years, according to data of the Cekia agency.

“Interest in business activities in the Czech Republic is growing in connection with economic boom,” Cekia board member Petra Dolezalova said, adding that the new companies can boost further economic growth.

“The growth in the number of companies is not dramatic, on the other hand it is clear that the steps taken by the government are a good impulse for those who are not sure whether or not to launch business activities,” Economic Chamber spokeswoman Viktorie Plivova said.

Read more »

Low-cost airlines raised passenger numbers at the Prague-Ruzyne airport by more than one-fifth to 2.8 million in 2007, Eva Krejci, spokeswoman of the Letiste Praha company which runs the airport, said.

Low-cost airlines had a 22.4 percent market share in Prague last year, up by 2.4 percentage point. Overall, the airport cleared a record 12.4 million passengers.

Two low-cost carriers ranked among the top five airlines at the Prague airport last year. Britain’s easyJet came third with 977,000 passengers, followed by Slovakia’s SkyEurope with 599,000 passengers.

Read more »

Czech foreign trade showed a surplus of Kc86.1bn last year, more than double the record-high figure seen in 2006, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said today.

The improvement came largely thanks to a higher surplus in the category of machinery and transport equipment, a lower deficit in trade in mineral fuels and a shift from a deficit into a surplus with raw materials.

On the other hand, Czech trade balance worsened in the categories of chemical products, semi-finished goods, materials and foodstuffs last year. Aggregate exports rose by 15 percent and imports by 13.1 percent in year-on-year terms.

Read more »

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

According to the latest Local Development Ministry data mortgage banks on the Czech market granted 83,344 new mortgage loans worth over Kc142bn to individuals in 2007.

In Prague alone, mortgage banks provided 24,000 loans worth Kc54.5bn and in the second largest Czech city, Brno, Kc13.4bn worth of them.

Overall, the volume of mortgage loans granted to individuals, firms and municipalities totalled Kc184bn in 2007 and the number rose to 86,000 from 69,000 the year before.

Experts expects a further growth of the mortgage market this year, though at a slower pace.

Read more »