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Czech hotels, guesthouses and camp sites registered a record 20.1 million tourists last year, according to the Czech Statistics Office. The number of foreign visitors was 10.2 million, which is almost equivalent to the entire population of the Czech Republic.

The Czech retail sector not including cars recorded a 5.6-percent year-on-year rise in revenues in 2017, according to official figures released this week. Internet and mail order sales were the biggest single drivers of that increase, growing by more than 21 percent.

The Czech Republic registered a balance of trade surplus of CZK 152.6 billion last year, according to freshly released official data. While the figure was lower than that for 2016, the country’s exporters had an impressive year, setting new records.

One rate rise down, probably one still to go this year. That is how Czech central bank governor Jiří Rusnok summed up the situation after the bank board took the largely expected decision to raise the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75 percent.

Executives at the semi-state power giant CEZ want to divide the company in two, Hospodářské noviny reported on Thursday. The state would retain control over CEZ’s coal, nuclear and gas operations, while the new firm would handle renewable energy and distribution, the newspaper said.

The average price rise for new flat in the Czech capital Prague rose last year by around 19.1 percent to reach around 85,223 crowns per square metre, according to a group of the leading developers and builders of new flats in the city.

Although winter months are still ahead, two bike sharing firms in the Czech capital are gearing up in the fight for customers. Home-grown firm Rekola, known for its pink bike frames on the market for more than five years, faces a battle against Chinese newcomer OFO, whose yellow bikes were tested in a pilot run in Prague 7 just recently.

Little headway has been made on road building in the Czech Republic in recent years and the situation is unlikely to improve soon, according to the Supreme Audit Office. However, ANO are promising to speed up the process.

The heads of government of the Visegrad Group are holding a summit in Budapest on Friday. The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland are debating the establishment of a regional development bank, European issues and bilateral cooperation.

The Czech Republic and the Australian-based metals company, European Metals Holdings (EMH) will sign an addendum to the memorandum on lithium mining in the Czech Republic, the outgoing Minister of Industry and Trade Tomáš Hüner said following talks on Thursday with EMH representatives and the Czech firm Geomet, which holds a prospecting license for natural resources at the Cínovec mining site in the north of the country.