The Czech Television Council failed yesterday to remove General Director Jiří Hodač, despite a recommendation from the Lower House. Three members of the Council stood behind him.
The Czech Republic had 4.32 million mobile phone users at the end of last year, giving it Central Europe's highest penetration rate, data from Czech operators showed on Monday. The end-2000 penetration rate in the country of 10.2 million people soared to 42% from 19% at the end of 1999. The number beats previous forecasts made by the country's three operators before the Christmas holiday season. Hungary's penetration was above 30% at the end of last year while Poland's was 18%.
The Czech crown again shadowed euro/dollar movements on Monday, closing the trading a touch firmer against the euro, its key reference currency. The crown stood at 35.17 to the euro from 35.24 on Friday. Against the dollar it slipped to 37.10 to from 36.87.
Bond prices dropped on Monday. After bullish mood and panic last week, bond prices dropped significantly after large sell-offs started early in the morning. There were a few buying/selling waves during the day, however prices did not recover to openings in any time of the day. Not many of the issues have been actually traded, almost all the trades have been done in MoF 6.30/05, MoF 6.40/10 and EIB 8.20/09 issues; the volatility of short-term governments and most of the corporates was much lower today. IRS rose by just a few basis points, we hardly believe the longest term ones could stay below 7% for a long time. On Tuesday, CPI data will be released, the first economic indicator due 2001, which will be a deciding factor for bond market.
Current benchmark prices: MoF 6.75/05 100.90-20 (-15 bps), MoF 6.30/07 97.20-50 (-50 bps), MoF 6.40/10 96.25-55 (-50 bps).
Today will be released CPI figures for December as well as the December rate of unemployment.
(David Marek)