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Coalition government agrees on target budget deficit for 2005. Zentiva GDR shares five times oversubscribed in London trading. 10 billion Kc gambling industry poorly controlled. CzechInvest names DHL "Investor of the Year"

The results of a newly released survey by Sweden's Intrum Justitia, one of Europe's leading providers of credit management services, indicate that Czech Republic is one of the riskiest places in Europe to do business, in terms of customers defaulting on payments.

Crown drops on fears of political instability. Draft 2005 budget in circulation. Tax breaks for married couples, families with children. Popular Eurobond issue increased by 50 percent. Power utility faces $25m arbitration claim.

Foreign owners of Czech companies are expected to repatriate a record 70 billion crowns in profits this year. The biggest dividend will by paid by CSOB to its Belgian parent bank, KBC.

Were all those pre-European Union entry fears of price hikes justifiable? And just who needs to transform their economy more, anyway; new members like the Czechs, or perhaps old-hands like France and Germany? Wood & Co. brokerage's Jan Sykora sets the record straight.

Czech-Swedish bilateral trade surpassed the $ 1 billion dollar mark last year — and it's not just Czech Skodas and Swedish furniture that are trading hands. Ian Willoughby travelled to Stockholm and spoke with Tomas Rak, the director of the Czech Trade branch that opened there in January, to find out more.

World Bank takes Czech bureacracy to task. FDI to reach $5 billion. ING launches investment fund devoted to central European property.

Insufficient corporate governance, convoluted legislation, low investor interest — and, in the early days, the availability of easy loans with few questions asked — have for over a decade made the Czech bourse the last place domestic companies went to raise cash. That may be about to change.

Prague's Charles University is the oldest in the whole of Central Europe — having been founded in 1348 by Charles IV— so, even allowing for outbreaks of war and the bubonic plague, the venerable institution has been handing out diplomas for some 650 years. But what makes the "Class of 2004" unique is that this years' freshly minted graduates will also be citizens of the European Union, with the right to seek work in all 25 member states of the expanded EU, although most of the original 15 have imposed some restrictions.

Police financial crime unit to begin work. Bankruptcy-fraud ring under investigation. Current account deficit deepens. American-style mortgages.