Economy

Josef Šíma, President of CEVRO Institute, talks with professor Michael Munger of Duke University about the economics and politics of unicorns, sharing economy, truly voluntary exchange and the PPE approach which combines rigorous policy analysis with an acceptance of ethical obligations of charity.

During the past few weeks nothing really new occurred in cryptocurrency’s world. The last two weeks, however, have already brought a change. The discussion related to Mike Hearns’s exit about the future of Bitcoin lead by important developers from the community is contributing to this change.

Over 90% of legislative burden in Slovakia comes from four ministries: the Ministry of Finances, the Ministry of Labor, thr Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy. The highest share, about 65% (EUR 1.7 billion) comes from the Ministry of Finances.

The fiscal position of the Government remains comparatively strong. The Government is expected to continue reforms implementation, which would also result in additional support by official international donors. Overall, real GDP is expected to grow by 1.7% in 2016.

Businesses in Ukraine want the customs procedures to become less income-focused and instead, to be aimed at facilitating trade. As the 2015 survey of Ukrainian businesses by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting showed, changes in trade regulations and customs rules are needed to boost international trade.

On January 1, 2016, provisional application of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU started, which lowers duties on the EU goods. Import duty surcharge (at 5-10%) was cancelled. Further we try to analyse impact of these events on international trade.

Lithuania outstripped its neighbors (Latvia and Poland) and once again was ranked among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of ease of doing business. But Lithuania’s competitors are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs, so last year’s achievement is not guaranteed for this year.

The need for a CMU is clear; capital markets still remain shallow despite the European Union’s founding commitment to the free-flow of capital in the Treaty of Rome. If the green paper’s estimates are correct, 90 million additional euros would be available for business financing in the member-states if capital markets were as deep as the US.

The Czech government continues to do its utmost to limit the economic freedom of individuals. Nowadays, the attention of lawmakers turns to the restriction on opening hours of malls and supermarkets with the floor area larger than 200 square meters during public holidays (8 days per year including Easter or Christmas).

Since the Czech Republic is an export-based economy with one dominant trading partner (Germany), one can be very skeptical of the ability of the Czech government to actually reduce unemployment. On the other hand, there is much the government can do to make the situation worse.