An attempt to accomplish business with a flurry of quick meetings and barrage of emails is more likely to result in failure. Czechs prefer to get to know someone, learn about the person’s background and firm, and then, if they are comfortable, get down to deal-making around the dessert course, or even at a follow-up meeting. Most Czechs want to build long-term, two-way business relationships and will be put off by too much emphasis on an immediate sale.

According to David Marek, chief economist at Deloitte in Prague, the nation’s unemployment rate is low for two main reasons. First, assembly plant jobs have been relatively easy to create because they are cheap and government incentives have made the Czech Republic attractive to global manufacturing companies. Second, the Czech business cycle is closely connected to the economic health of the EU. When Europe is doing well, the Czech Republic does even better, Marek says.

If the tech sector continues to innovate so rapidly, why has overall productivity growth been exceptionally sluggish? David Byrne, Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Dan Sichel, Professor of Economics, Wellesley College ask in an article published on the voxeu.org portal.

2017 is turning out to be a good year for Prague’s hoteliers, who have managed to raise their prices to previously unseen levels. Meanwhile, occupancy rates also mean that rooms are producing a markedly higher yield than in the past, according to a report in the business daily E15, Radio Praha writes.