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The average monthly wage in the Czech Republic accelerated sharply in the past three months. In the first quarter, the average monthly wage in the Czech Republic amounted to slightly over 14,000 CZK, a year-on-year growth of 7.0 pct in nominal terms. In the same period, consumer prices grew by less than 4 percent.

Fixed-line telephone operators, the dominant operator Czech Telecom and one of the major alternative carriers, Aliatel, launched a pilot project of call-by-call carrier selection on Moday. The test is being carried out in the Jihlava region, South Moravia.

The end of last week saw a battle of two chemical giants - the oil refinery Ceska Rafinerska and the largest Czech chemical company Chemopetrol over prices of supplies. On Friday night, Ceska Rafinerska cut off supplies to Chemopetrol as they were unable to agree on prices of oil and other raw materials.

The state budget deficit in May decreased to 32 billion crowns from 42 billion in April, the ministry of Finance said on Monday.

The Czech authorities banned imports of German poultry and poultry products on Thursday. The move came in response to the discovery of a banned herbicide in organically grown wheat used as chicken feed in Germany. The spokesman for the veterinary authority, Josef Duben, said the ban will be in place until June 13. By then, the Czech veterinary authorities expect an explanation and more information from their German counterparts.

On June 2, 2002, the ATM networks of 15 Czech banks will be out of operation. Clients will be unable to use their bank cards for payments in shops either. The company MUZO which runs the transaction authorisation system for bank cards will be upgrading its software.

The Czech foreign trade in April ended with a deficit of 40 million USD as compared to the 300 million deficit in the same period of 2001. The result is significantly better than expected. Economic analysts had predicted a deficit of around 200 million dollars in April, approximately the same as in March.

The Czech Senate on Friday rejected a law that would almost entirely ban tobacco advertising within two years. The senators opposing the law said they thought the measure was too broad.

The Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman has said the Czech government has been unofficially offered 260 billion CZK, which is around 9 billion USD, for its majority stake in the power utility CEZ.