Economy

In 2014, the Czech economy did well. All reports have forecasted the same for 2015. The publication of the Czech Statistical Office dealing with the development of the Czech economy in the first quarter of 2015 confirms it. So how well did we do after all?

After a recent TV address of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, it became known that the state\'s efforts in 2014 and the coming years will be focused on the implementation of an import replacement policy. According to the prime minister: \"it is a shame when imports account for 80% of the net export structure.\"

The Lithuanian Parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture are destroying competition in the dairy sector through the egregious regulation of raw milk purchases. Much noise has been made over this new law, which places onerous restrictions on the dairy market of dubious constitutionality.

Intra-budgetary redistribution of the Personal Income Tax in Lithuania is aimed at providing financial support for economically weaker municipalities. The present analysis is aimed at measuring level differences of intra-budgetary redistribution of the Personal Income Tax across municipalities as well as identifying the major problems created by this process.

Under the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the internal administrative structure and the resources of the governments should correspond to the needs of the local population as well as ensure effective governance. However, statistical data shows the growth of municipal bureaucracy despite demographic decline.

Following 2014 reforms, municipalities allocate social allowances by performing municipal, rather than the state function. This reform was aimed at achieving more transparent and targeted social benefit allocation process by decreasing the volume of improper or inappropriate payments.

Ageing of the Polish society means that every year more and more people will reach the retirement age. At the same time, the number of people of working age will be decreasing. In this context, it appears that the pension system reform implemented in 1999 introduced a not very fortunate principle to the Polish pension system.

The debate on the potential reform of the Polish pension system has brought to light many fallacies about capital pillar of the system. Let\'s clear some of them up.

The dramatic upsurge of CHF/PLN exchange rate in mid-January 2015 triggered in Poland a wave of discussion on the situation of people with mortgages in Swiss currency and who should be deemed responsible for such a state of affairs.

On June 13, 2015, the Slovenes celebrated the Tax Freedom Day – a day the Slovenes stopped working for the government and actually started earning icome for themselves. The “holiday“ illustrates how much taxes do the Slovenes pay each year.