Listen Now

Inflatech Decoy is a Czech company from Děčín which has become a market leader in the production of high-end inflatable models of real military equipment that can be used to deceive the enemy about real troop deployments. Their products are used for training purposes and, possibly, also in real ongoing conflicts. I spoke to Inflatech’s CEO Vojtěch Fresser and began by asking him how the decoys work and what their purpose is on the battlefield.

Like many cultural institutions, the National Theatre in Prague is struggling with growing energy costs and increasing demand to operate in a more sustainable way. It has recently installed innovative new heat recovery technology – using the body heat emitted by audience members.

Small stores around the country are fast disappearing, giving way to multinational chains which are better able to withstand the impacts of the energy crisis and two-digit inflation. In the last ten years over 4,000 small stores –butchers, bakers and specialty shops - have had to close down after customers turned to cheaper products on supermarket shelves.

There’s no doubt that Czechs love their beer, but with inflation at an all time high, the prices of pints are going up by nearly five or ten crowns per half litre. But the rising cost has less to do with beer itself getting more expensive and more to do with running a business becoming increasingly expensive, as Amelia Mola-Schmidt found out.

The government should this week consider proposals from the Foreign Ministry to terminate treaties allowing Russia free rent of land on which Russian-owned buildings stand in Czechia. The Czech side are also seeking rents paid for the use of such properties. I discussed the matter with Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Dvořák, first asking how Russia came to own dozens of properties in this country.

Flat prices went down for the first time since 2013 in Czechia in the last quarter of 2022, according to the index of Hypoteční banka, a daughter company of ČSOB bank. The index suggests that the cost of an average flat fell by 0.7 percent in quarter-to-quarter terms. However, real price decline may actually be far higher than the statistics indicate.

Czechs are the world’s most prolific beer drinkers and their various brews are highly sought after in markets across the globe. But a joint study conducted by universities in the UK, US and China suggests that the production of “liquid bread”, as the Czechs call their favourite drink, may in fact be under threat.

For decades now Prague city dwellers have been used to hearing a calm, modulated and well-known voice citing the names of the various stops on tram, bus and metro routes around the city. Who will have the privilege to be the voice that hundreds of commuters hear every day is decided by a public poll on test announcements read by some of the best actors and voiceover artists in the country.

Demand is falling and the economy is headed for recession according to the head of the Czech National Bank Aleš Michl. Meanwhile, the IMF’s chief Kristalina Georgieva has said that half of the European Union will experience a recession in 2023. So is a recession coming and how hard will Czechia be hit? Those are some of the questions I put to Cyrrus bank economist Vít Hradil.

The number of electric vehicles in Czechia is growing and according to official estimates their number could reach 100,000 by 2030. Most of them will be in the capital city. Prague has therefore decided to increase the number of charging stations available. Drivers will find them, among other places, in the smart lampposts lining the streets of Prague’s Vinohrady district.

Single-use plastic packaging contributes to landfill waste and microplastics in the oceans and drinking water. Small Czech firm Myco's mycelium-based packaging material offers a completely biodegradable alternative – and received recognition for it at this year's Energy Globe World Awards.

What is the European Union and the wider Western world doing to tackle financial crime? And can financial tools be used to curb hostile regimes such as the one in Russia? These are some of the questions that are being explored by the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS), a part of Britain’s leading security think tank - the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). I caught up with the founder and director of CFCS, Tom Keatinge, when he was in Prague attending an event organised by the Prague Security Studies Institute last week. He warned that dirty money is undermining European democracy and I asked him how.

This year will see real wage decline in Czechia reach 8.3 percent, the largest such drop within the Visegrad Group (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), according to an analysis conducted by investment firm Cyrrus. Meanwhile, for next year the firm expects real wages to fall by 0.1 percent. I asked Cyrrus’ chief economist Vít Hradil why this is the case.

Data released by Eurostat on Monday show that Czechia saw the sharpest year-on-year rise in electricity prices out of all EU member states in the first half of 2022 (+62%). The average cost of electricity for Czechs was the sixth highest in the EU and higher than in any other Visegrad Four state (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia). I asked ENA analyst and executive director of the Association of Independent Energy Suppliers Jiří Gavor why this was the case.

Czech MPs debated a windfall tax on profits in the energy and banking sectors in the lower house on Tuesday. The government plans to generate tens of billions from the tax from next year, not retroactively for 2022, as some voices in the coalition had demanded.

With inflation at over 17 percent and energy prices expected to go through the roof in the autumn, economizing has become the order of the day for the vast majority of Czechs. According to polls, eighty percent of Czechs are feeling the crunch, a third of them “very strongly”.

Four out of ten people in Czechia expect that they will be doing the same job until they retire and a further 20 percent believe that they will be doing the same job for at least another decade, according to a survey conducted by the Data Collect agency for personnel company Předvýběr.cz. The survey shows that many Czechs are unwilling to get themselves requalified despite expectations of major changes on the demand side of the labour market.

While optimism was at a record high when companies in Czechia were asked about their hiring plans during the summer, HR firm ManpowerGroup’s latest survey, which looked into the situation on the country’s labour market going into the final quarter of 2022, shows a marked decrease in optimism, especially among large businesses. Nevertheless, the situation is still far better than it was at the height of the Covid pandemic. I spoke to Jiří Halbrštát, the marketing and candidate sourcing director at the Czech branch of ManpowerGroup.

According to an analysis of the mobile data market published by the Czech Telecommunications Authority, retail prices for mobile data in Czechia are the highest in the EU. Czechs pay 150 percent more for mobile services than the EU average.

Czech year-on-year inflation slowed in August, from 17.5 percent in July to 17.2 percent. This followed 13 months of continuous rises. Obviously inflation is still very high, but does this mean the Czech economy has finally turned a corner? I spoke to Cyrrus bank chief economist Vít Hradil.