Finance minister: GDP won’t drop below two percent

Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has said that the growth of the Czech GDP in 2009 will not drop below two percent. Mr Kalousek told the daily Mladá fronta Dnes on Friday that he did not expect the unemployment rate to rise by more than one percent next year but that the growth of salaries might be slower. Several Czech economists, including the US-based economist Jan Švejnar, said that any growth in 2009 will be a success as Czech economy depends on the development in Western Europe which has already been struck by recession.

Author: Jan Richter