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A poll conducted by the CVVM agency shows that the majority of Czechs could gain a lot by planning their meals better. Food constitutes about 30 percent of household waste and while many people throw food away because they no longer feel like eating it, others eat food that is past its expiry date.

Almost one-third of Czechs can’t afford a week package holiday, either at home or abroad, Czech Radio reported on Wednesday citing the latest Eurostat report. The situation has improved – seven years ago the same was true for every second Czech.

A lot of exceptionals and somewhat disappointing fundamentals. That could more or less sum up the half year results announced by the Czech Republic’s biggest electricity producer, ČEZ, released on Thursday.

The Czech Republic has the biggest reserves lithium reserves in Europe with one company at the moment having taking the lead in prospecting those reserves and planning their extraction. But some political parties now appear to be discussing whether the state should be taking the lead in exploiting this strategic mineral.

Surging domestic demand was one of the key reasons with which Czech National Bank governor Jiří Rusnok justified Thursday’s 20 basis point hike in the key interest rate to 0.25 percent.

Certain parts of the Czech engineering sector are not experiencing the feel good effect blowing across most of the Czech economic landscape.

The Czech Republic’s state budget surplus had risen to CZK 25 billion at the end of July, up from CZK 4.6 billion at the end of the previous month, according to data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance. But the surplus is some way below the CZK 75.6 billion recorded at the end of July 2016.

For many Europeans, summer vacations are no longer limited to the summer, and more and more consumers, including Czechs, are taking holidays in the off-season. Czech Radio cited local travel agencies who say that interest in vacationing in the autumn has gone up in record numbers.

According to many analysts and economists, the Czech central bank is now on the verge of raising interest rates, a move that has not been seen for almost a decade. We look at the likelihood of such a move this week and in the weeks to come.

Czech firms have started ringing alarm bells at the lack of locally grown timber that can meet the toughest ecological growth standards. The alarm has been prompted by moves by some of the world’s biggest timber users, such as furniture designer, maker, and seller Ikea to set a target by 2020 that all the wood used in its outlets comes from recycled or fully sustainable sources.