November’s bank board meeting was a surprisingly calm event (as all board members raised their hands for a 25bp hike) despite hawkish comments from some members before the meeting who suggested they would vote for a 50bp hike. Also, the forecast released in November had an unexpectedly dovish message. As the economy developed almost exactly in line with the forecast, we believe the bank board will stay on hold, in line with the recent staff prognosis. Yet, some of board members might consider monetary conditions too loose due to the weaker koruna. We thus expect the board to be split, and our call for no hike is a close one. 

In 10 EU countries job quality was poorer in 2015 than a decade earlier. The worst decline was seen in Greece, the biggest improvement in Czechia. Read more in the new Working Paper titled: 'Bad jobs’ recovery? European Job Quality Index 2005-2015' published by ETUI, European Trade Union Institute.

According to the European Commission, the world's top 2500 industrial companies created more jobs, with a 1.7% increase in the number of employees, reaching 53 million in total in 2016. An important number of these world's top industrial R&D players are based in the EU (567 out of 2500; with 822 in the US, 365 in Japan, 376 in China and 370 in the rest of the world).The 567 EU based companies employed 18.8 million persons, 2.2% more than the year before, and companies with headquarters in the EU increased rheir R&D investment by 7% over 2016.

Czech companies see the most significant risk for their operations in workforce shortage. It is followed by an increase in administrative burden and dishonest behaviour of employees such as crime, theft or fraud. These are the results of the qualitative Corporate Risk Management Survey for 2017 that Aon conducted in the Czech Republic for the first time. The comparison with its Global Risk Management Study that Aon has prepared on a worldwide level for many years shows that Czech organisations significantly differ from companies operating in other parts of the world both in the perception of the significance of individual risks and the approach to their management. Only 1 out of 10 Czech companies have their own risk management department.