The Prague Guide

Czech state debt rose by Kc40.2bn in Jan-Sept this year to Kc842.7bn, and from July it decreased by Kc13.4bn, the Finance Ministry has thus confirmed today its state debt data of the beginning of October.

Per capita debt tops Kc84,000. State debt increased by more than Kc111bn last year.

State debt is the debt of the Czech government accrued by state budget deficit accumulation. State debt is financed through treasury bills, state bonds, direct loans or loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Internal debt grew by Kc38.5bn this year to Kc719.4bn and external debt was Kc1.7bn higher at Kc123.3bn.

Marketable debt stood at Kc803.3bn at end-Sept, down by Kc13.7bn in June to Sept.

Average maturity of state debt rose to 6.5 years.

This year’s strategy of the state debt financing and management shows that the government planned to borrow Kc159.2bn.

But, early in December the Finance Ministry revised the plan downwards to Kc152.8bn owing to better economic performance.

The amount consists of the state budget gap to reach Kc76bn this year against the Kc91.3bn projection, payments to the Czech bail-out agency CKA worth Kc13.3bn, reserve for pensions worth Kc10bn, financing of government bonds worth Kc43bn and installments for loans from the EIB worth Kc1.8bn.

(Czech News Agency)

The Prague-Ruzyne airport has cleared a record 12 million passengers to date this year, half a million more than in the full of last year and 7.3 percent more than in the same period of last year, the airport said in a press release today.

“We expect passenger numbers to get close to 12.5 million by the end of the year,” Stanislav Zeman, marketing director of Letiste Praha which runs the airport, said.

Prague-Ruzyne served 34,760 people a day on average this year. The highest number - nearly 47,000 - was cleared at end-June.

Among the most popular destinations was Paris with nearly 530,000 passengers in the last eleven months, followed by Frankfurt with over 420,000 passengers and London’s Heathrow with almost 386,000 passengers.

Among overseas destinations, New York tops the list with 103,000 passengers, trailed by Seoul with 80,000 and Toronto with over 52,000 transported passengers.

National air carrier Czech Airlines (CSA) transported over 4.9 million passengers in January-November, 4.4 million of them on its regular lines.

Travel Service with almost 1.1 million passengers is number two and low-cost airline easyJet with 900,000 passengers number three. Then are Skyeurope, Lufthansa and British Airways.

Prague-Ruzyne is the biggest airport in the Czech Republic and the second biggest in Central Europe. Fifty airlines and seven low-cost carriers fly to the airport at the moment, connecting Prague with 105 destinations worldwide.

Letiste Praha netted Kc1bn last year, which ranked it among the most successful state-owned companies.

Based on the government’s decision, the state-owned company will now be transformed into a joint-stock company which the state will then sell.

Czech ministers and representatives of the European Commission today signed nine operational programmes enabling the Czech Republic to draw EUR14bn (around Kc365bn) from EU funds in the years to come.

The amount makes up around half of the sum the Czech Republic can draw from EU funds in 2007-2013. The operational programmes include the Transport programme, the Enterprise and Innovation programme, and seven regional programmes.

Regions will receive around Kc125bn from operational programmes, while companies will get roughly Kc100bn from the Enterprise and Innovation programme. The biggest amount of up to Kc150bn will go into transport.

The Transport programme is the biggest operational programme and represents up to 22 percent of resources the Czech Republic can draw from EU funds in the coming years. The government wants to use the money above all to finance development of the motorways and railway tracks network.

The EC should approve four other operational programmes by end-2007 for the Czech Republic that include operational programmes Integrated, Environment, Technical Assistance and Prague Competitiveness. The Czech Republic should receive around Kc182bn from these programmes.

The Czech Republic is among the least successful countries among new EU members as regards drawing money from EU funds, alongside Cyprus and Latvia.

By the end of this year, the country should draw only around half of the amount allocated for 2004-2006 worth Kc40bn, data from the Local Development Ministry have shown.

The Czech Republic can receive around Kc700bn from EU funds in 2007-2013.

Czech building output grew by 3.5 percent year-on-year in October after a 1.8 drop in September, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said.

Adjusted for workdays, construction output rose by 2 percent in October. Month-on-month, seasonally adjusted building output added a real 0.9 percent.

The value of building projects permitted in October grew by 9.9 percent year-on-year to an estimated Kc32.8bn.

The growth in building output in October was boosted mainly by building construction which showed the biggest increase in new construction, modernisation and reconstruction, above all in the construction of new flats.

Building output grew in all the monitored types of construction except for civil engineering and other work, statisticians said.
(Czech News Agency)

Czech November inflation was 1.1 percentage point higher than the Czech National Bank had forecast, CNB section head Tomas Holub told CTK.

Like in October, the reason were faster-than-expected food prices.

In October, inflation was 0.2 percentage points above the CNB target, and in the preceding months lower than the target.

Motor fuel prices were also higher in November than the CNB predicted in October.

Inflation adjusted for fuel and regulated prices, and the impact of indirect taxes was in line with the CNB’s latest forecast.

The Czech Statistical Office said today inflation accelerated to 5 percent in November from October’s 4 percent, and was above the limit set by the CNB.

The primary impact of changes in indirect taxes is estimated at slightly over 1 percentage point. Adjusted for this factor, inflation was about 4 percent, or at the edge of the CNB tolerance band around its 3-percent inflation target.

Month-on-month, consumer pries grew by 0.9 percent.

“This was above all due to a fast increase in food prices which caused the biggest month-on-month consumer price growth since January 1993. Prices of bread and cereals, eggs, milk, butter and cheeses, oil and fats, vegetables, and sweets, increased the most markedly,” said the CNB. Prices of motor fuels also grew.

A fall in the prices of recreation and culture had the opposite effect on inflation, the CNB noted.

Prague - The Czech crown this morning broke through the Kc26.00/EUR level for the first time ever and at one point traded at Kc25.97/EUR, following the publication of November inflation data, the highest figure in the last six years, Patria Online server said.

The unit also gained to the dollar, to Kc17.72/$.

The inflation figure was much higher than expected, reducing to minimum the probability of a rate cut in the foreseeable future, said Patria analyst Tomas Vlk. However, developments in world markets are a factor hindering the crown’s firming today, Vlk noted.

The dollar is trading at $1.4658/EUR, no great change from Friday. Markets are cautious ahead of the Fed’s meeting.

Year-on-year inflation in the Czech Republic accelerated to 5 percent in November from 4 percent in October, the highest figure since August 2001.

Prices of food and soft drinks contributed the most to the acceleration.

The Czech Senate almost unanimously approved an amendment to the law on the budget’s tax allocation, according to which municipalities will get additional 4.6 billion crowns from tax revenues next year.

The bill, which will be advantageous mainly for smaller towns and villages, is yet to be signed by President Vaclav Klaus into law.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said the amendment was to remove high differences in the municipalities’ incomes given mainly connected with the number of their inhabitants.

He added that the situation of a crushing majority of towns and villages would remained the same, while in some cases it would improve.

Kalousek recalled that his ministry had already started to work on a new bill on the allocation of tax revenues with representatives of towns and villages.

He said he preferred making a firm and permanent agreement to a premature decision, and consequently the new legislation could take effect in two years only, probably as of January 1, 2010.

($1=17.828 crowns)

I write web sites, all day most days of the week, and I have taken a while to decide on a large project - this is it.  I think it will take at least one year for this site to appear in the front page of the Google results for Prague.  I also think the site will have to have several hundred pages of good original content.

So why a Prague Guide?  Is there not loads of them already?

The answer to two helps with the answer to one.  There are quite a few Prague guides, but not ones that give loads of information about Prague and what to do and see.  Most are selling hotels, care hire, or flights to Prague.  Of course I will offer some of these services, but they are not what the site is about.  The site is about great information on Prague, what to see, where to go, great clubs, hidden places to eat.  The stuff that I wanted to know about Prague when I first went there.

Okay I have set out my stall - lets see how well I can stick to it.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification