economy

The Polish Deal was a new socio-economic programme of PiS for 2021-30. It was announced in May and approved by the government in September 2021, before coming into force at the start of 2022.

The US Federal Reserve System (Fed) has announced that it will raise interest rates. They have been at zero since the start of the pandemic and since the last recession in 2009, they hit their highest level in 2019. But even in 2019, they were very low, with an effective rate of about 2.5%.

While for the second year now we have been tracking new numbers of coronavirus-related cases and deaths several times a day, and estimates for the cost of the economic lockdown range between two and four billion CZK a day (for the Czech Republic), another crucial figure has escaped our attention.

In the latest edition of the International Tax Competitiveness Index, Poland was placed 36th out of 37th OECD countries. In the international ranking of tax systems\' competitiveness prepared by the American Tax Foundation, only Italy scored worse.

The inflation in Hungary is just as bad as it is in the rest of Europe: in 2021 the rate of the inflation was 7.4%, which was a 13-year-old record. It is a logical step from the government that they want to reduce its level and want to moderate the prices.

Inflation is often referred to as a tax, imposed without parliamentary approval, without legislation and without considering the consequences. Today’s inflation is special: printing money seemed to be pretty much the only way to respond to the pandemic and to finance rising public spending.

Mobile network operators welcome the decision by Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Andres Sutt (Reform) to put three 5G frequency authorizations up for auction instead of four.

According to a representative survey commissioned by the economic think-tank INESS, very few Slovaks know what employer levies are paid today, or what their actual amount is.

Rising consumer prices have become an important issue both in the world and in Slovakia. Although with the current single-digit growth, consumers of the 1970s would have laughed us out, it is good that we are talking about this topic out loud. Perhaps it will help us avoid much bigger problems.

After a turbulent year and a total of three general elections, Bulgaria finally has a government. Much like the new power in Germany, it is far from a stable, single-party rule but rather a patchy, colorful coalition of small powers and former enemies.