Firms in the Czech Republic are constrained by an unwillingness of banks to grant loans, another obstacle is a bed economic outlook. Thus, 75% of firms in the CR will not realize bigger investment projects this year.
Russian debt to the Czech Republic complicates. The Czech weekly Respekt wrote that the Russian government provided CZK 52bn to pay off its debt to the CR. However, Falkon Capital paid to the Czech government only CZK 21bn. This information is alleged to be confirmed by deputy finance minister Ladislav Zelinka.
Vice-premier Vladimir Spidla reached an agreement about with deputies of labor unions of civil servants. Their wage tariffs will be step up by 11% in March. The volume of wages and salaries paid in civil sector this year will increase by 7.4%
The 4K (Quad-Coalition) can disappear. The KDU-CSL does not agree with the solution of the ODA debt and gave the ODA to decide by Sunday's midnight whether it will merge with the US/DEU. Both, ODA and US/DEU were surprised by this requirement and refused it.
Europe's economy is staging a ``moderate'' recovery from a two-year slowdown, the European Commission said on Friday. The economy of the eurozone will expand as much as 0.4% in the first quarter 2002 after shrinking as much as 0.3% in the fourth quarter 2001, the commission said in its Friday's report.
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