Construction sector performance depends on weather conditions more than other sectors. Frosty weather and plenty of snow reduced construction output by 6.8%, year-on-year, in December. Moreover, December 2001 had one working day less than December 2000 and construction workers took holiday more than usually. A number of hours worked fell by 7%, year-on-year. Compared to November 2001, the construction output adjusted for seasonal fluctuations dropped by 6.4%.
The Czech National Bank released minutes of the last board meetings. While the first interest rate cut at the extraordinary meeting of the central bank CNB's Bank Board on Jan 21 was unanimous, the regular meeting on Jan 31 decided to make another rate cut by a vote of 3:2.
Germany escaped a European Union reprimand over its widening budget deficit, sending a signal that EU leaders are willing to bend the rules designed to protect the euro. EU finance ministers unanimously decided not to issue the election-year warning after Germany's Hans Eichel pledged to keep the deficit under the EU's limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product and to balance his budget by 2004.
What mobile phones do Czechs like? According to the survey of GfK agency, 33.5% of mobile phone users have Finnish Nokia. The second spot gains Alcatel with 21.6% and the third is Siemens with 16.7%. The market share of Ericsson is 8.3%, Motorola is used by 8.1% users.
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