Miroslav Kalousek Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has warned of disastrousconsequences the collapse of the euro would have for the Czech economy.Speaking in Prague on Thursday, Mr Kalousek said a systemic financialcollapse of the Eurozone would have a fatal economic, fiscal and socialimpact on the Czech Republic; all political parties would have to cometogether to face the challenge as the country would 'struggle tosurvive'. Mr Kalousek said that next year Czechs are "more likely thannot" to face problems they could not have imagined since the fall ofcommunism. When asked whether the government was outlining any contingencyplan, Mr Kalousek said they would not be doing their jobs right if theyweren't.
The Czech National Bank on Tuesday released the results of a stress testCzech banks underwent in September. The test showed sufficient stability ofthe banking sector even in the case of a double-dip scenario, combining anegative development of the Czech economy with an escalation of the fiscalcrisis in the Eurozone, the central bank said. The banks' capitaladequacy ratio is high, reaching 15.7 percent by the end of September. Aspart of the test, the central bank wrote off all bonds of the endangeredEurozone countries held by Czech banks which by the end of Septemberamounted to 24 billion crowns. The test showed that credit risk representedthe major threat for the Czech banking sector; Czech banks' credit riskreached 8.9 percent and is on the rise.
Two days after the Czech central bank released the results of its stresstest, the Moody's rating agency on Thursday downgraded Czech banks'outlook from 'stable' to 'negative'. The agency's report reflectsits view that the banks' operating environment will weaken, driven by theexpectation that GDP growth will decelerate to 1.9% in 2011 and to 0.6% in2012, well below pre-crisis levels. That will create renewed pressure onthe banks' asset quality and impair their profitability andcapitalization, the Moody's report said.
Temeln nuclear power plant The US-Japanese firm Westinghouse on Thursday signed a cooperationagreement with the Czech engineering company Vtkovice with a view tosupply components for two planned blocks at the Temeln nuclear powerplant. Westinghouse is one of three bidders in a multi-billion tender tobuild new reactors at the Temeln plant, along with France's Areva andthe Russian state enterprise Atomstroiexport. Vtkovice, one of the CzechRepublic's largest engineering firms, signed a similar deal with theRussian bidder in October while Areva says it is close to concluding anagreement on future cooperation with the Vtkovice firm as well.
koda Yeti The German-owned, Czech-based car manufacturer koda Auto has announcedplans to develop a new SUV model. koda CEO Winfried Vahland told theCzech edition of Forbes magazine on Tuesday the new vehicle would be aclass larger than koda's current Yeti model, and should compete withcars such as Kia Sorento. The development of the new car, which could benamed Bigfoot according to some media reports, is only in the early stagesand could take up to five years to complete, Mr Vahland said. The newssuggests that koda could in the future also manufacture higher class carsalthough its owner, the Volkswagen group, would like the producer to focuson cheaper models, such as Citigo and Rapid.
Nov Paka Nov Paka in eastern Bohemia is the Czech Republic's Best Town forBusiness this year, according to an annual study by the business weeklyEkonom. Nov Paka, a town with 10,000 inhabitants located some 90kilometres north-east of Prague, came second in last year's poll. Thistime, the town won thanks to high ratings in the locality category whichfocuses on environmental issues, crime levels, numbers of beds in hotelsand hospitals, and so on. Second and third in the study came Humpolec andNov Msto nad Metuj, respectively, also in eastern Bohemia. The bestrated town in the category of entrepreneurial environment is Brno.
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