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July 20th, 2008
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BANKED The country’s banks earned 47.1 billion Kč ($2.9 billion) last year, an increase of 24 percent compared with 2006, the Czech National Bank reported March 31. A total of 37 banks operated on the market, with the largest three — Česká spořitelna, ČSOB and Komerční banka — taking home some 72 percent of all the profits earned.

CUTS The government is looking to set public-deficit goals of 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product next year, 1.4 percent in 2010 and 1.2 percent in 2011, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek announced at Prague’s University of Economics March 27. Currently, the deficit for these years is estimated at 2.9 percent, 2.6 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Topolánek gave no indication of how these reductions would be made.
FUEL Uranium will not be mined near Osečná, north Bohemia, the daily Liberecký deník reported March 31. The state-owned uranium miner, Diamo, applied for permission to excavate some 20,000 metric tons of ore located at the site, which would be worth approximately 120 billion Kč at current price levels. Local residents strongly opposed the proposal.
YOGHURT The large German dairy Mueller is planning to set up a local branch with an eye on becoming the country’s dominant yoghurt producer, Hospodářské noviny reported April 1. Mueller is the largest yoghurt producer in Germany and the United Kingdom and occupies the No. 2 spot in the Czech Republic after Danone. The company said it has no plans to change its current policy of buying Czech milk and processing it in Germany.
HYPER The expansion of hypermarket retail stores cooled off last year thanks to saturation of the market, the Czech News Agency reported March 31. The number of hypermarkets increased only 16 year on year, to 231 in total; analysts expect some 20 new stores to open this year. Kaufland operates the largest number of hypermarkets (84), followed by Ahold (56) and Tesco (52).
STEEL The government has won an arbitration case against the steel giant ArcelorMittal, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said March 26. The dispute concerned a minority share of ArcelorMittal’s steelworks in Ostrava, north Moravia, which it acquired in 2003. The steel giant was seeking $355.37 million from the state, and will now have the option of buying the 14 percent share.
PESSIMISM Some 31 percent of the country thinks the Czech Republic will never catch up to the living standards of Western Europe, a poll by the STEM agency reported March 27. This number sat at only 17 percent in 2003 and has risen steadily since. Forty percent of those polled said it would take more than 10 years to reach Western standards.
HAME The Anti-Monopoly Office (ÚOHS) has approved Nordic Partners’ purchase of Hame, the largest domestic producer of canned food, the ÚOHS announced March 27. Nordic, which is based in Iceland, owns food companies in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. The deal will likely be finalized in the upcoming week, Nordic said.


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