Tuesday News Briefing

NEWS

APPEAL A committee reviewing the dismissal of Supreme Prague Prosecutor Vlastimil Rampula has recommended that Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil issue more specific reasons for the firing, the daily Právo reported. Rampula has been connected with a number of botched investigations in the past, including the decision not to charge disgraced former Environment Minister Pavel Drobíl with a crime. Pospíšil is not required to listen to the advisory committee and has final say on Rampula's dismissal, but there are concerns that not following through on the committee recommendation could give Rampula grounds for further appeals.

NORTH BOHEMIA In the wake of complaints from mayors about his inaction, Prime Minister Petr Nečas paid a visit to the restive region beset by social and racial clashes in recent weeks, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported Sept. 19. A series of marches have targeted Roma housing blocks in recent weeks. The demonstrations come in the wake of a spike in crime, increased migration of Roma to the region and decades of failed integration policies. "The demonstrations here are not connected with whether I have come or not," Nečas said. "A number of them have been called and supported by extremist organizations that are abusing the situation."

NUCLEAR The new national energy strategy that hopes to have 80 percent of domestic energy supplies covered by nuclear power by 2060 will include two new reactors at the Dukovany plant, Bloomberg News reported. Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kocourek said the government will continue to emphasize a shift away from renewable energy sources. "We will fulfill our [European Union] obligation to have 13 percent of renewables by 2020, but I'm afraid we can't afford to expand it further in the future," he said.

BUSINESS

STOCK SLUMP The Prague Stock Exchange plummeted Sept. 19, falling to the lowest levels seen since July 2009, ČTK reported. The PX index traded 4.53 percent weaker against Friday's close at 907.4 points, hampered especially by poor trading of energy company ČEZ and the banks listed on the bourse. ČEZ was down 5.26 percent to 702 Kč per share on news of the company's exclusion from Warsaw's leading stock index and in anticipation of further high-level personnel changes. Austria's Erste Group Bank slumped 6.08 percent to 483.70 Kč, and Komerčni banka lost 6.28 percent to close at 2,999 Kč per share. Insurer VIG and tech company KIT Digital posted marked losses. The Czech bourse's performance was in line with exchanges across Europe, which ended the day in the red.

RICH COUNTRIES The Czech Republic is one of the three richest countries in Eastern Europe, according to a study conducted by Allianz, with per capita financial assets doubling to 13,067 euros (320,000 Kč) in the past 10 years. Annual asset growth in 2010, however, was far below the regional average of 16.3 percent at 7.4 percent. Worldwide, gross financial assets increased 6.2 percent to 95.3 trillion euros in 2010, surpassing the record from the end of 2007, according to the study. The list of the world's richest countries continues to be headed by Switzerland, which benefits from a strong currency, followed at some distance by the United States, Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands. Only Slovenia and Estonia outpaced the Czech Republic in the region.

LOTTERY The parent company of betting and lottery company Tipsport, one of the country's largest such firms in terms of volume of bets, posted a net profit of 577.5 million Kč in 2010, and revenues from betting grew two-fifths to 4.17 billion Kč, daily E15 reported Sept. 19. A significant amount of the profit came from dividends from retained profit from previous years worth 599 million Kč from subsidiaries focused on odds betting. The biggest slice of the dividend came from Tipsport.net, which focuses on online betting. Internet gaming accounts for 70 percent of Tipsport's sales.

WEATHER

Prague, Czech Republic; Mostly Cloudy; High: 16 C, Low: 11 C  

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