Unemployment rose by 0.3 percentage points to 9.1% in January, exactly in line with our forecast. The rise is mostly a seasonal effect, as the Christmas season that brought temporary jobs, ended and does not reflect a substantial change on the Czech labor market. We keep forecasting that the unemployment rate will subside to just above 8% during the spring, and rebound back to approx. 8.6% by the end of 2001.