The Economy of Czechia

Czechia is an advanced country that ranks among the countries with the most developed economy in the world. Czechia is a member of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). It is based on industry and services (60%), agriculture and other primary production.

The main industries are automotive manufacturing, electronics, mechanical engineering, high technology , steel manufacturing, transportation equipment, chemical manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

The main agricultural products are cereals, vegetable oils and hops. Key mineral resources mined in Czechia include black and brown cleansing, kaolin, building materials and uranium. The most important product of the Czech economy is Škoda Auto.

Czechia has the most self-employment per population in Europe. The average wage as of 2021 is around CZK 37,800 (EUR 1,540). It is among the countries with the lowest proportion of people at risk of income poverty in the EU. Unemployment and state indebtedness in Czechia remain among the lowest in Europe.

In the first quarter of 2015, the Czech economy grew the fastest among the EU states. The Czech economy grew by 3.3% in 2021 and the following …

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The Rising Demand for Work Permits

During 2020, slightly over 16,000 employment work permits were issued to workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), despite the limited travel limitations and job opportunities due to the COVID pandemic. This has been the largest amount of work permits issued out since the beginning of issuing said permits in 2009.

Many of the companies that are searching for employees are those int eh social media, meat, or healthcare industry. Healthcare workers took up nearly a third of all work permits issued and received last year at over 5000 workers recruited from outside the EEA. The second-largest sector is the IT sector following up with around 4700 permits. Interestingly, over a third of last year’s total was issued to workers that came from India, totaling nearly 5800 permits. Following that, 1800 permits came from Brazilians and over 1000 came from Palestinian workers.

Some of the largest companies to make use of these work permits included Amazon, Accenture, Facebook, Google, and Dawn Meats which is one of Ireland’s largest meat processing companies. Despite the pandemic occurring and even at the …

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Brexit budget seems uncertain

The time is coming once again for the Irish government to publish its annual Summer Economic Statement, which will be composed mostly by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe. This years budget will be especially tricky, given the ominous threat of Brexit on the horizon. 

Donohoe’s strategy to combat the issues that are likely to arise given the likely succession of the United Kingdom from the European Union are related to the type of Brexit that occurs. According to the Economics and Social Institute, there are three scenarios that should likely be considered when drawing up a detailed economic plan for the future. 

In general, it is an ideal practice to compare all of these possibilities to a counterfactual scenario where no succession occurs. The three main possibilities, surrounded by economic and political uncertainty, are deal, no-deal, and disorderly no-deal. 

The deal scenario is described as the “UK making an orderly agreed exit from the EU” which “ involves a transition period covering the years 2019 and 2020, and a free trade agreement between the UK and the EU27 thereafter.”

The no-deal …

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Residential property prices rise across Ireland

Within the last 7 years there has been an upward trend for residential property pricing. So far, 2019 has continued to follow this trend, showing significant national growth each month; Dublin seems to stay at or above par in comparison to national average prices.  

Although this trend has been upwards, Ireland is still yet to reach the price levels that they had sustained in 2007. The current residential property prices in Dublin still falls at 22.5% lower than the highest period during the early 2000s, while the national values are 18.5% lower.

In 2018, the prices rose a total of 13.3% throughout the year, giving many sellers hope that the trend would continue forward into the following year. From February to March 2019, the prices increased 3.8%. March to April there was a 3.1% increase, which shows a smaller amount of increase, but it is still far from slowing down.

Dublin increased residential prices by 0.5%, leaving house prices and apartment rents increasing by the same 2.2% as the previous month.

It seems that Dublin and …

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Unemployment rate falls towards 6%

New figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that the current rate of unemployment is 6.3%, the lowest it has ever been since the market crash. This rate is 2% lower than that recorded in June of 2016 and the exact number of workers who are listed as unemployed fell by 42,100 during this time.

 

The current rate of unemployment in Ireland is 3% lower than the EU average, reflecting this country’s incredible economic progress in the past few years. Although the unemployment rate is still higher than that in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, experts predict that the steady downward trend will continue.

 

Furthermore, Ireland has an unique advantage in its ability to better integrate immigrants into the work force. The unemployment rate for foreign nationals in Ireland stood at just 7.7% last month, when they are much higher across the rest of Europe.

 

Economist Mariano Mamertino believes that “Ireland remains on a clear trajectory for unemployment to …

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What Brexit Means for the Irish Economy: a pro and a con

With UK Prime Minister Theresa May failing to win a majority in elections last week, the fate of Brexit negotiations have become even more up in the air. It is likely that she will be forced to give concessions the opposition, and thus take a softer stance on the terms of Brexit. Despite the specifics of the negotiation still being uncertain, it has become obvious that the Irish Economy will be hurt by declining trade with the UK and will at the same time benefit from the relocation of multinational corporations from the UK to Ireland.

The UK is one of the top destinations for Irish exports. In 2015, 12% of Irish exports went to the UK, valuing at $12.9 billion. However, Brexit will force terms of trade between the UK and Ireland to be re-examined. While Ireland will definitely try it’s best to keep trade with the UK as open as possible, with declining consumer spending in the UK and the falling price of the pound to the euro, Irish goods …

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Is the Black Market all bad? A talk on deviant globalization

Author Nils Gilman argues that black markets may not be a negative from every perspective. “If you like entrepreneurship, if you like innovation,” says Gilman, “then you’ve got to love deviant globalization.” Gilman notes that the narcotics industry in Mexico directly employees 400,000 people – more than finance or oil.

There is some great research being done on the black market, in Ireland Karen Mayor is working on a paper on the topic.

Deviant globalization is a strange thing, on one hand you have tourism, then on the flip side you have sex tourism. Legal drugs are one market, illegal drugs are another and a serious multi-billion industry too. There is military distribution then you have arms dealers, for almost any industry there is an illegal version and this video is looking at these in a manner that doesn’t get into the morality of it but rather the economics of the issue. This is fascinating viewing, the full clip is here

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