The unemployment rate in the Czech Republic was 2.3 percent in May, followed by Germany (3.4 percent), Hungary (3.7 percent) and Poland (3.8 percent).
Czech politicians have mostly taken a tough line on migration, as almost six out of 10 Czechs are against taking in migrants at all and 35 percent of people say they should be taken in only temporarily, according to an April CVVM institute poll.
A low share of unemployed was recorded also in Romania (4.6 percent), Bulgaria and Estonia (5 percent), and Slovenia (5.6 percent), all below the average unemployment rate in the EU, at 7 percent in May.
Eurostat noted that, compared to a year ago, one of the strongest decreases in the unemployment rate were registered in Croatia, from 11.3 percent to 8.9 percent.
The number of dollar millionaires in the Czech Republic meanwhile has increased to 28 140, which is an increase of nearly 11 percent on the previous year, according to figures released by the consultancy Capgemini on Monday.
The combined wealth of Czech dollar millionaires increased by 13 per cent over the past year, to 68.5 billion US dollars. Among the main contributing factors to the growing number of wealthy Czechs is the country’s increasing GDP and the strengthening of local investment markets.
The Czech Beer & Malt Association has also been supporting efforts to promote the nation’s beer exports, backing Czech beer days worldwide and in particular more recently focussing on exporting Czech beer culture, Forbes magazine reported. The sector is expected to expand rapidly.
“For the best pilsner, it is probably the Czech Republic with Germany close,” Forbes noted. The country is currently in the top ten of beer exporters worldwide. Beer industry experts believe that a “Czech lager category” should be created, rather like South African wine as a category. While Czech pilsner is not an ordinary larger and the category exists, it is nevertheless not yet official.
Czech marketing and design agency, Little Greta, based in Prague with office representation in London, Munich and New York, won two design awards at the 2017 World Beer Awards, making them the most successful Czech agency at the event.
The nation’s brewery industry employs around 55 000 people with some 7 500 working directly and through support for local farmers. At least 95 percent of raw materials are derived from within the Czech Republic.
Libor Sečka, the Czech ambassador to the UK, told his audience at a beer trade show: “We are a small country but we are very strong in certain aspects and beer is something we consider ourselves as being a Super Power.” He added: “The beer is like liquid bread and so precious for us that we say Czech beer is like Czech gold.”
According to several sources, including the Czech Brewery and Malt Association (2016) and Euromonitor Research, the Czech Republic was recently ranked the seventh largest beer producer in the European Union with an estimated 1.88 billion litres output in 2016.
