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The head of the state body tasked with keeping emergency reserves, the Administration for State Reserves, confirmed on Thursday the first arrival of a shipment of Czech fuel from Germany. Czech fuel had been kept at a storage site owned by Viktoriagruppe which later declared insolvency. The fuel, worth an estimated 2.1 billion crowns (around 44 million euros) was the subject of a legal tussle, but an agreement was reached over the course of the summer on its return.

A fall in the number of public contracts is seen as the main reason for an 11 percent decline in revenues in the Czech construction industry in the first eight months of this year, iHned.cz reported on Wednesday. However, building companies say they expect to see growth again in 2017, the new site said.

The days of one company producing licence plates for motorists in the Czech Republic are, in all likelihood, at and end, news site Lidovky.cz reported on Tuesday (the online version of Lidové noviny). Since the 1990s, the site reports, license plates (informally referred to as espézetky in Czech) were the domain of Hicon.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic has been falling more or less steadily since January and reached a fresh low of 5.2 percent in September, according to freshly released data from the Office of Labour. Meanwhile, the figures for those out of work (almost 380,000) and for jobs offered (just over 140,000) are the best they have been since 2008. I discussed the downward unemployment trend with Jan Bureš, chief economist at Poštovní spořitelna ČSOB.

The Czech Republic is likely to face a shortage of pilots in the near future, the daily Hospodářské noviny warned on Thursday. Dozens of pilots have been switching to Arab and East Asian carriers, who pay them more than local carriers, and there are no young pilots to fill the vacancies.

Swiss-made Curaprox toothbrushes have acquired a cult status among Czech consumers. The sales from the company’s Czech branch have more than doubled since 2012, the news site Aktualne.cz reported, citing the Swiss producer’s website. Overall use of toothbrushes has increased as well, up by just a tenth over the last year.

With customers having to wait months for some models, carmaker Škoda Auto has decided to extend the working week at one of its Czech factories, Hospodářské noviny reported on Wednesday. However, finding new hires for Škoda’s Kvasiny plant may not be easy, the daily said.

Zuno Banka, an online banking unit of Raiffeisen in the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia, will end operations in both countries by the end of the first half of 2017, Reuters and other sources report. The decision is a consolidation move on the part of the parent group, Raffeissen, the parent banking firm confirmed on Tuesday.

The minister of agriculture has proposed exempting stall holders at farmers’ market from a new electronic cash register system that he says could drive some of them out of business. However, the finance minister says his cabinet colleague has left it too late to raise the issue.

Czech carmaker Škoda Auto is likely to present the new, modernised version of its third-generation Škoda Octavia already at the beginning of next year, the Czech News Agency reported on Friday, citing sources from within the company.