The Justice Minister, the only non-CSSD member of the Cabinet, resigned yesterday citing his unsuccessful reform attempts, blocked in the Parliament. As a former judge, he pushed through a judicial reform aimed at streamlining the judicial procedures. However, he has achieved little and some of his plans were controversial.
Other two ministers squabble publicly about the nuclear plant Temelin. The Industry Minister (a big fan of nuclear energy) wants the Environment Minister (an utterly unsuccessful ecologist-cum-politician) to skip an environment impact assessment procedure. The main argument is telling, as far as Mr. Gregr's mindset is concerned: he says that the procedure was carried out when the Temelin building got the green light. And when was it? Early eighties, during the communist regime's heyday…
The Czech koruna suffered a contagion from the tumbling Polish zloty and weakened by 10 hallers to 35.65 CZK/EUR. The koruna dipped vis-a-vis the dollar as well, to 40.40 CZK/USD.
Czech bonds fell on Monday, after Friday's rise on IRS market, which was caused by Dannish "no to euro". Longest bonds were falling most, with 9-year EIB losing a half percentage point. We do not expect further falls, as the situation on European markets is getting more stable and satisfied with the referendum results in Denmark.
Current benchmark prices: MoF 6.75/05 100.10-40 (-10 bps), MoF 6.30/07 95.95-25 (-30 bps), MoF 6.40/10 94,85-15 (-30 bps).
(Ondrej Schneider and Dalimil Vyskovsky)