So, it is agreed: they did not agree on anything. Cabinet spokesperson said that Messrs. Zeman and Klaus did not actually agree on the UMTS licenses. He indicated though, that the prime minister did assure the parliament speaker that the four licenses would be auctioned. The minister of finance denies this… All this brouhaha happens when the public budgets will score a 100 bil. deficit this year and CZK 130 biol. next year when privatization revenues are excluded. But it is much easier to make brave statements about licenses than to sit down and actually do something about ballooning budget deficits.
The National Property Fund wants to have the CEZ privatization finished in May 2002. Next parliamentary election is expected in June 2002…
The Czech koruna begins to lose its gigantic gain vis-a-vis the euro from the last week and it dipped to 34.87 CZK/EUR from the morning level of 34.73 CZK/EUR. The koruna weakened against the dollar as well to 41.70 CZK/USD from the morning's 41.30 CZK/USD.
Bonds fell yet again, this time by around 50 bps. There is a hope that this should be the bottom, but probably it is not, yet.
(Ondrej Schneider)