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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.

The Czech Banking Association has raised its forecast for the growth of the Czech economy this year to 3.2 percent. Economists believe that household consumption will remain the main driver of the economy, which will also be boosted by strong foreign demand.

Czech e-shops are going from strength to strength, the financial daily Hospodářské noviny reports. According to the daily, Czech consumers are beginning to order far more than just electronic items or toys online but even foodstuffs they used to buy in stone-and-mortar shops. For the first time, annual online revenues in the Czech Republic are expected to top 100 billion crowns.

A recent poll conducted by Equa Bank asked respondents whether they had a good overview of their partners’ finances and apparently for good reason: four in 10 Czechs, according to the poll, are not completely honest about how much they make or have saved. The reasons may be various: from maintaining a feeling of financial independence to maintaining the freedom to surprise their partner or spouse with an unexpected gift from time to time. There are also more underhanded reasons such as purposely hiding away funds in the case of a future breakup

Czech measures to deal with its nuclear waste backlog are again under scrutiny as the country faces possible European Commission sanctions for failing to pass on its domestic plans for dealing with nuclear waste from power plants and other civil activities and an update of the existing strategy taking place.

A Czech businessman is set to open a clinic in Tanzania. It is the first major Czech investment in the country, the daily e15 wrote on Friday.

The number of vacancies on the Czech labour market continues to grow. However, this is not translating into salary increases on the part of companies seeking to make hires, suggests a freshly published report.

Workers of the world unite! A stirring rallying cry which in reality often failed to cross borders. But Czech unions now appear to have won allies for their campaign to hike local wages on the grounds that the same work should be earning the same reward irrespective of where it is taking place.

A scandal has broken out in Kyrgyzstan over the government’s decision to hand a billion dollar contract for an energy project to a Czech company that Kyrgyz diplomats deem highly unreliable. The said company was moreover recommended to Kyrgyzstan by President Zeman’s Chancellor Vratislav Mynář.

The number of long-term unemployed in the Czech Republic in June was less than half the figure for the same month three years previously. Indeed, according to figures released by the national Office of Labour, the long-term jobless rate is way below the number of positions being offered.