What awaits Czech society in 2008?

Petr Zídek

historian and journalist

To everyone's surprise, Jan Švejnar will be elected president in February. Czech society will quickly get used to being represented by a brilliant academic. Václav Klaus's defeat will cause a rupture in the governing coalition. In autumn's early elections, the Social Democrats will beat ODS, which voters will blame for hiking prices of basic goods at the beginning of the year, by a 4% margin. Jiří Paroubek will become prime minister and govern in coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Greens. During a period of political chaos, MP Boris Šťastný will manage to push through a law banning smoking in restaurants. After 29 June, when the Czech national football team will beat Italy 2–1 in the Euro 2008 final, the country will be overcome by euphoria.

Markéta Šichtařová

Next Finance analyst

The year 2008 should be successful for the economy, despite a slowdown in economic growth. The slowdown will be caused by a shortage of suitable staff and high wage demands. Growing interest rates will also burden the economy. For the full year we expect GDP growth to slow to 5.1%. The average unemployment rate will be about 5.6%. Wages will keep growing, in some quarters by more than 8% [year-on-year]. The new tax reform will play a role too. We expect inflation to rise through January, when it…