On Wednesday 22nd October the Chamber of Deputies of Parliament of the Czech Republic passed the Act on State Budget for the year 2015 through the 1st reading. The deficit should be 12 bn lower in relation to the present budget and it is to be 100 bn CZK. Also the basic figures of income that is to be 1.119 trillion CZK (0.02 trillion CZK higher than in 2014) and expenditures  1.219 trillion CZK (0.008 trillion CZK higher than in 2014) were approved. Against the proposal were ODS, TOP 09 and Hnutí Úsvit (Dawn Movement). Communist party (KSČM) abstained in this vote. One of the most vocal opponents of presented budget is vice-president of TOP 09 Miroslav Kalousek who claims that this is the worst budget in past five years that we are “eating up” the future and that the investments proposed in this budget are actually lower than before. Czech government and Ministry of Finance also has to cope with the worsened outlook of Czech economic performance where GDP is to grow only by 2.4 % this year and not by 2.7 % as it expected in July. This seems caused mainly by the lower demand in the countries of Euro-zone and problems with contract in Russia and in Ukraine. However, Czech National Bank next outlook is still to come on Thursday 6th November with its present estimate of growth by 2.9 % this year and 3 % for next year.

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