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The Czech national railway operator, Czech Railways, posted a loss of 4 billion CZK in 2001, 800 million less than in the previous year. The figure is 1.3 billion lower than loss envisaged by the company's board of directors.

Economic growth in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States will slow this year, with Poland and Russia acting as a drag on the region, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in its bi-annual Transition Report.

The Czech Producer Price Index decreased in April by 0.5 percent month-on-month after stagnating in March. In year-on-year terms, producer prices were 0.1 percent lower than in April 2001.

The lower house of the Czech parliament has approved spending revenues from privatisation of state assets on the purchase of 24 new fighter jets for the Czech Air Force, which is the country's biggest military contract to date. The measure has yet to be approved by the Senate, and ratified by President Vaclav Havel.

The Czech unemployment rate decreased to 8.8 percent in April from 9.1 percent in March. In April 2001, unemployment stood at 8.3 percent. The development is in line with expectations of economic analysts.

Meanwhile, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman said it was highly unlikely that the Czech government would manage to privatise Czech Telecom before the upcoming June general elections.

Productivity is currently on top of the agenda of business leaders from all sectors. A recent productivity study showed that the majority of businesses across the world were only operating at productivity levels of between 50 and 60 percent. In this week's edition of Economics Report, we take a look at how Czech companies are doing in this respect.