The Transatlantic Economy Report 2018 presents the most up-to-date facts and figures about the EU-US economic relationship. The research was conducted independently by Dan Hamilton and Joseph Quinlan of the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University. The study includes dedicated profiles for 30+ European countries and all US states. Value added by U.S.-owned foreign affiliates totaled an estimated $5.4 billion. Estimated affiliate employment in the Czech Republic is among the highest in eastern Europe, with American firms employing an estimated 96,084 workers in 2016, the report says.

In all the commotion over who will win the highway toll tender, commercially and politically, any chance of a reasonable discussion about why we would want a toll system, and what sort of toll system is best for the country, has been lost. This is a defeat for us all. The purpose of public procurement is to use private money collected through taxes and expend it on public goods that will deliver a higher value to the economy and society than if that money had been spent by individual citizens. Since we have had no public debate on what the value of highway tolls are, we have no way of assessing how much value we would receive from any winner of the tender.

In 2017, the global political risk landscape was turbulent, and is likely to remain so over the next 12 months. Marsh’s Political Risk Map 2018, based on BMI Research findings, highlights changes during the past 12 months and looks ahead to continuing risks and new concerns. For example, tensions between North Korea, the US, and other countries have risen as North Korea continues to conduct missile tests.

Average wages in the last quarter of 2017 accelerated massively on the back of an increase of salaries in the public sector, but the impact on inflation is so far limited. Core inflation eased due to strong base effects. Headline inflation is thus set to decrease to 2%. Monthly data from the real economy are set to confirm the sound dynamics of the economy at the beginning of the year, Komerční banka says.