The European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged. The ECB, which sets rates for the dozen countries sharing the euro, left its benchmark rate at 3.25 percent. The UK central bank kept its main lending rate at 4 percent.
The Association of Pension Funds, which collects data from individual pension funds, said that the number of private pension scheme participants last year rose by almost 178,000 to 2.508 million, that is, a quarter of the Czech population.
Hungary's industrial output rose in January, the first monthly gain since October. Production rose 2.1 percent from December, the office said. The annual rate fell 1.5 percent from January 2001 as a slowing European Union economy negatively influenced demand in Hungary's largest export market.
The Czech Export Bank said it would be able to get a more favorable loan for a potential purchase of Gripen supersonic fighters from BAE SYSTEMS than that the British company has offered to the Czech government.
Czech statistical office releases February's inflation figure. We expect an increase of consumer prices by 0.2%, m-o-m, and 3.9%, y-o-y.
Ministry of labor and social affairs announces the rate of unemployment for February. We estimates a decrease to 9.3% from January's 9.4%.
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David Marek