The Ministry of Finance expects a stormy Cabinet meeting on the 2000 budget, as ministries demand much more than the MoF would we willing to concede. It bears repeating: the government waited until September to discuss the budget, a irresponsible and unwise decision, as it is too late to do sensible changes now. So much for the strategy…
The special parliamentary committee began hearing on the IPB "rise and fall." The ODS's man on the committee seems to reach a conclusion already: the IPB did have a plan and it would be cheaper than the forced administration. Meanwhile, Nomura refuses to pay back alleged CZK 9 bil. loan from the IPB. Cheap, indeed…
The koruna first tried another weakening and lost to 35.45 CZK/EUR but then recovered and ended at 35.35 CZK/EUR, as it started the trading on Wednesday. As the euro initially fell vis-a-vis the dollar from 0.916 USD/EUR to 0.907 USD/EUR, the greenback gained against the koruna as well, to 38.90 CZK/USD. During the late evening hours, though, the euro shot up back to 0.915 USD/EUR and it brought up the koruna as well to 38.60 CZK/USD. As far as the koruna is concerned, Monday's trade deficit numbers may have a significant influence, until then, the koruna should move only sideways.
Czech Watch goes for a holiday next week. We will try to provide you with a modified Czech watch, but, please, read our other daily stories.
(Ondrej Schneider)