Below, you can find commentary of the Chairman of the Czech Fiscal Council, Eva Zamrazilová. The text was first published in a special supplement of the Banking monthly magazine entitled Top Finance (Bankovnictví, vol. 1/2020). Developments abroad will continue to be essential to the Czech economy in 2020. In 2019, the global economy was weakened…
On Tuesday 4 February, the Ministry of Finance issued a new macroeconomic prediction. It expects the country’s real GDP to grow by 2% compared to 2019. The growth estimate remains unchanged, compared to the previous prediction published in November. “Our view of the development of the Czech economy has remained principally unchanged. We estimate that…
A member of the Czech Fiscal Council Jan Pavel will carry on in office for another six years. After his re-election by the Chamber of Deputies at the suggestion of the Czech National Bank last October, he was sworn in on Thursday 23 January 2020, by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Radek Vondráček,…
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Committee for Fair Pensions presented the basic principles of the pension system reform. One of the fundamental building blocks of the proposal is the splitting of the existing first pension system pillar in two: the zeroth and the first pillar. The zeroth pillar is to ensure…
Pension expenditures in the Czech Republic are the eighth lowest in the EU, in relation to gross domestic product. Whereas the EU28 states expended an average of 9.2% of GDP on pensions in 2017, it was only 6.9% in this country. In discussions about pension system change, opinions can be heard, based on this data,…
In 2019, the state’s finances ended up with a deficit of 28.5 billion crowns, said Finance Minister Alena Schillerová, at a press conference today. The approved budget planned on a deficit of 40 billion crowns. The better-than-expected result was due primarily to non-tax and capital revenues, which were above plan by more than 38 billion…
The Chamber of Deputies approved the draft 2020 state budget Wednesday night. A total of 108 were in favour of the Act, which plans on a deficit of 40 billion crowns, like the current year. Total income of the state budget is to amount to 1,578.1 billion crowns, with planned expenditure amounting to 1,618.1 billion. …
On Wednesday 4 December, the Czech Fiscal Council (CFC) issued its regular quarterly opinion on the development of public sector finances and the set-up of fiscal and budgetary policy. Among other things, it points to problematic aspects in the approval of the 2020 government budget, as the budget bill counts on certain income, the attainment…
The Czech Fiscal Council, along with the European Commission’s Representation in the Czech Republic, organised a professional conference on the role of independent fiscal councils in EU countries, which was held on Monday 18 November. The words of introduction by the Czech Fiscal Council Chairman, Eva Zamrazilová, and deputy head of the Representation of the…
On Wednesday 13 November, a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Forecasts met at the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. At this meeting, committee members, who are leading Czech economists, discussed the November fiscal forecast issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic and rated it as realistic, in terms of…
The Czech Republic last year complied with the expenditure and debt rules of budgetary responsibility laid down by Act No. 23/2017 Sb., on the rules of budgetary responsibility (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”). This is the conclusion of the Report on Compliance with the Rules of Budgetary Responsibility for the Year 2018, published on…
On 29 October 2019, the Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council (known as the “Fiskalrat”) organised a workshop on fiscal multipliers and government transfers. Put in simplified terms, the issue was how to most precisely measure the impact of fiscal policy (e.g., changes in public institution sector expenditure or tax changes) on gross domestic product. The meeting,…
