Suchergebnisse

This article deals first with the relative affordability of owner-occupied housing in Prague compared to the situation in the Czech Republic in general. The relative position of Prague in this region is then assessed in a cross-national comparison and determined to be specific. The article's main objective is to uncover the main demand factors behind the high prices and the low affordability of owner-occupied housing in Prague. The authors focus on factors that derive from the specifi c economic position of Prague and the specific culturally-rooted preferences of Czech citizens for owner-occupied housing. Findings from numerous sociological studies and experiments have proved both of these factors to be very important, and their future development will thus largely be influenced by the affordability of housing in Prague.

The interconnections within food, biofuel and fossil fuel markets are first described in the context of biofuels technologies and economic policy framework. Consequently, the econometric analysis consisting of Johansen cointegration, error correction model, vector autoregression and Granger causality is applied to price series of 12 biofuel related commodities. While a number of equilibrium relationships are found across the examined markets suggesting their interconnection, we do not obtain a persuasive confirmation of the thesis that biofuels clearly lead to food shortages via the increase in prices of basic food commodities used in the production of biofuels. Adapted from the source document.

The article deals with the theoretical issues of macroprudential policy, shift of monetary policy paradigm towards application of so called 'leaning against the wind' strategy and mutual cooperation of these policies, which are both aimed at maintaining financial stability. For detection of financial instability are mainly used early warning indicators, which are most often based on the credit activity of the economy and asset prices development. In the second part, we examine the impact of the credit activity in the Czech Republic on the prices of particular assets and its subsequent effect on the consumer price index. Adapted from the source document.

In this paper we discuss the issue of the choice of exchange rate regimes in transitive economies and the effect of exchange rate policy on the development of macroeconomic indicators (e.g. the average growth rate of real GDP in domestic currency and the development of domestic inflation). It is obvious that exchange rate policy is not a passive factor, at least in the medium term. Our analysis indicates that the fixed foreign exchange rate arrangements policy does not necessarily mean stability of the foreign exchange rates. Neither percentage exchange rate changes of fixed rates, nor their volatility measured by the standard deviation are lower than the average change is over the examined period. Our analysis indicates also that the inflation rate is growing in accordance with the growth of depreciation of the foreign exchange rate and the growth of its volatility measured by the standard deviation. It was cleared that the higher volatility of the effective nominal exchange rate is reflected by the lower average economic growth rate of transitive countries. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses the relationship between monetary policy and price of oil, in broader sense price of commodities. Firstly it focuses on describing the relationship of key macroeconomic variables, gas prices and other commodities against oil prices. Subsequently, it discusses the existence of a "transmission channels" through which monetary policy can be propagated into oil prices (or prices of commodities). Secondly it provides further insight into the forecasting process of the CNB, in both a retrospective look back at the prospects of oil prices in the past and the analysis of transitory and permanent shock (the rise in oil prices of 30 USD/b). Simulated oil price shock is calculated from the average level of Brent oil prices in the first quarter of 2010, i.e. 77.50 USD/b. Adapted from the source document.

The relatively long term period of stability before the present crises called even "Great Moderation" or "Golden Age of Central Banking" indicated that the inflation targeting was a success story. As of 2008 a lot has changed and the debate over "Leaning against the wind or Clean afterwards?" is being revisited among central bankers and academicians. At the same time the question "Does money matter in monetary policy" is on the table again. This paper focuses on the discussion of these issues; moreover, some new challenges that emerged in previous three years are discussed. The crisis has highlighted an urgent need to incorporate banks and financial frictions into monetary policy modelling framework -- therefore some new findings on this field of research are outlined. An important lesson from the crises is that price stability is not a sufficient precondition for financial stability, therefore an operational framework for financial stability is being searched -- this is subject of the final part of this paper. Adapted from the source document.

Empirical research on the differences between unit values in the EU's trade with the Czech Republic & the intra-EU average has shown a significant changes. The comparative level of manufacturing products imported from the Czech republic has increased, the comparative level of products exported to the Czech republic has decreased. The price-gaps, inherited from the communist regime have been substantially reduced. Most remarkable changes of the comparative prices took place in trade with products of metalworking industries. The favorable development of price relations in the Czech foreign trade has been an important element underlying balance of payments performance, it has contributed to the nominal & real improvements of Czech krown & should play an important role in the process of convergence. The analysis is based on Eurostat Comext Database. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

In the Slovak parliamentary elections of 2010, the reformist centre-right parties defeated the left-nationalist coalition government led by Robert Fico. The election results brought some other surprises – the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia and its leader, three-times Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, as well as the Party of Hungarian Coalition were eliminated from the national parliament. Moreover, the election outcome of the radical right-wing Slovak National Party declined significantly. On the other hand, two new parties entered parliament. All in all, the election outcomes show the weakening of the nationalist agenda and the nationalist vote. The paper examines why this has happened and raises the question of to what extent it is sustainable.