The year ahead brings more fear than confidence!

The current situation in the eurozone shows the real risk of serious economic problems for the Czech Republic in the year to come.

Long-lasting discussions about the solution for the eurozone debt crisis, instability of financial institutions and constant changes in economic situation result in increased fear of Czech businesses.

Forecast for 2012 economy is unfavourable and for this reason Czech companies are getting ready for further worsening of the situation. They decrease investment, save money and are rather cautious when hiring people.

The unemployment rate is slightly increasing (around 8%) and worsening the situation is also expected in exports that went rather well in 2011. Expectations for GDP growth are about 0.8%.

Petr Kužel, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce
“Companies are behaving rationally and getting ready for the new wave of crisis. As a result, companies react by reducing the number of employees. However, businesses know that in case of serious problems it is not worthy to fire qualified people as it might be difficult to hire them back once the crisis is over. According to our chamber´s survey almost a fifth of companies is ready to decrease their staff beginning 2012. Only 9% indicate they will hire new employees”.

Jan Wiesner, Chairman of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs´ and Employers´ associations of the Czech Republic
“Our member unions and companies expect that the credit crisis would also bring some positive aspects: politicians would begin to make decisions when using more common sense and less political arguments. The current complicated economic situation would make us solve problems instead of talking about them. Therefore we expect significant lowering of administrative burden, less (environmental) regulation and bigger emphasis on competitiveness of Czech companies. I would like to take advantage of this event to thank all our partners and the CEBRE office for our excellent collaboration up to now.”

Jaroslav Hanák, President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic
“Czech companies are very hesitant in their expectations towards 2012. Euro- / debt-crisis is worsening market confidence and has very negative effect on Czech export and HDI. Therefore I expect the Czech government to stand up for the interests of economy and support any suitable and sustainable solution that will safeguard our biggest trade partner – the euro-zone.”