Monday News Briefing

NEWS  

DEBT Assets belonging to Prague City Hall, including Charles Bridge and Old Town Hall, have been frozen over a 163,000 Kč debt the city owes to the Prague 6 Housing Cooperative, the daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) reported Jan. 23. City Hall will be unable to administer the properties until the dispute is resolved.  

ELECTION Senator Petr Pithart of the Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL) does not plan on running in the 2013 presidential election, he told the daily Právo Jan. 23. Previously described by media as a potential nominee, Pithart said he witnessed enough embarrassment in the previous election in 2007, when Václav Klaus was re-elected amid multiple allegations blackmail and vote-rigging among MPs. Pithart told Právo he would endorse Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in 2013.  

MURDER A 26-year-old man accused of stabbing to death his mother and grandmother in a low-income housing complex in Česká lípa, north Bohemia, was detained by police Jan. 22, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. In a separate attack, an elderly woman and her niece were assaulted by an unknown perpetrator in Frýdek-Místek, north Moravia. Police said one the women died as a result of the attack.  

BUSINESS

FUEL If the price of fuel at filling stations gets close to 40 Kč per liter, the government will have to intervene, Transport Minister Pavel Dobeš said on Czech TV Jan. 22. Dobeš said he sees only two options, either reducing the value-added tax (VAT) rate applied to fuel or the excise duty. "If the price approaches 40 Kč, the debate will undoubtedly have to be opened at the government level again on how we can solve the problem," Dobeš said, adding the planned cut in VAT to 17.5 percent could partially help.

IRAQ More than 80 Czech companies will vie for contracts Jan. 23 at an Iraq business forum organized by the Industry and Trade Ministry to coincide with the official state visit of Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, ČTK reported. "Possibilities are open in particular in the reconstruction of refineries and the construction of new ones, supplies of machinery for the development of other parts of the economy than oil, hydroelectric plants and cooperation in the defense industry," Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kuba said.

REAL ESTATE Activity on the real estate market dropped just 1 percent last year, according to the number of transactions listed by land registry offices, while in 2010 there was a 3 percent fall, the latest data from the Czech Geodetic and Land Registry Office show. The number of entries of new apartments sank 29 percent last year. People in the Czech Republic took mortgage loans for 117 billion Kč in 2011, which, according to estimates of mortgage bank Hypotečni banka, is a 40 percent year-on-year increase.  

WEATHER  

Prague, Czech Republic; chance of rain; High: 4 C, Low: 0 C

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