Finance Ministry raises economy growth estimate

The Czech Finance Ministry raised on Thursday its estimate for this year’s economic growth by 0.2 percentage points to 1.5 percent. Next year, the Czech Republic’s gross domestic product should grow by 2.4 percent. The estimate of the Czech National Bank for this year’s growth is lower; the central bank believes the economy will grow by 1.4 percent. Last year the Czech economy contracted by 4.2 percent. The Finance Ministry said the country was successfully recovering from the downturn, and expected the growth will be fuelled by foreign trade.