Inflation in Czechia hits 17.2 percent in June as food, gas, and housing costs rise

Consumer prices in the Czech Republic rose by 17.2 percent year-on-year in June, the highest since December 1993. The increase in food prices is the key factor contributing to accelerating inflation. In May, inflation was 16 percent, the 12th time in a row that growth accelerated. According to Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka, inflation in the Czech Republic will continue to rise for several more months. 

Food prices rose by 18 percent year-on-year in June. Housing costs are also increasing. Natural gas became more expensive by almost 58 percent, solid fuels and electricity by roughly a third, and heating and hot water were more expensive by 18.1 percent compared to last June. People paid 47.5 percent more for fuel. The prices of goods increased by 19.3 percent and the prices of services by 13.9 percent.

The suspension footbridge in Dolní Morava appeared among the world's most extraordinary places to explore in 2022, according to the U.S. magazine Time. The photo of the 721-meter-long bridge was also featured on the cover of the magazine. The 50-item list also includes the Arctic and one place place that is out of this world, the International Space Station. Sites in Europe held the most spots on the list.

Twelve colorful carpets with floral motives made of recycled materials and dubbed the "Floral Union" were unveiled today to decorate the seat of the European Council in Brussels within the six-month Czech EU presidency. The authors say the Czech art installation will highlight the importance of nature and climate protection and show the significant character of art during the hard times Europe is going through now.

The floral carpets are inspired by the 12 stars on the European Union flag. They are placed in a circle to symbolize unity in diversity that the EU 27 countries are trying to achieve.

The Czech Republic wants to unblock the integration of the Western Balkans into the EU by a system in which the candidate countries would be rewarded for partial success on their road to the EU, the daily Financial Times reports.

The six Western Balkans countries are in varying stages of the integration process. Meanwhile, some voices from the region say that some EU member countries are deliberately postponing their EU entry by changing the accession criteria.

Providers of social services in Czechia will additionally get CZK 3.2 billion as government coalition leaders agreed on completing the funding for care for those in need today. The regions demanded CZK 4.4 billion.

Last year, CZK 22.15 billion went to these subsidies while this year's subsidies are to amount to CZK 20.4 billion. The difference is to be covered by higher payments from clients and a rise in the state contribution to care paid to the people in serious conditions who live in homes, the ministry said.

Plzeň footballers will face HJK Helsinki in the second preliminary round of the Champions League on July 20. The Finnish champions advanced over RFS Riga after a penalty shootout. The Latvian national team, with Czech player Petr Mareš, won in Jurmala 2:1 after extra time in the home rematch of the first preliminary round. Helsinki won 1:0 a week ago.

The Czech Republic during its EU presidency wants to achieve the unification of member countries' approach to vaccination and other measures against Covid, Health Minister Vlastimil Válek told media after a debate with MEPs in Brussels today. Many EU states have recently seen an increasing number of Covid infections, and countries are preparing for an expected autumn wave of the epidemic. The debate also focused on the plan to combat cancer and on the draft rules of health data sharing across the EU.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska is convinced that the Russian architects of the invasion of Ukraine, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, will end up in prison, and that the question is not whether it will happen but when, he told media in Prague today. Maliuska is attending a two-day meeting of the EU justice and interior ministers that is being hosted by Prague amid its EU presidency. He said it is important to punish not only the soldiers who are to blame for concrete war crimes, but mainly the representatives of the Russian Federation who, through their decision, are accountable for the war and its civilian victims including hundreds of children.

The fire in the Kralupy nad Vltavou scrap metal yard has been extinguished after a week, and firefighters have ended their work there. The fire started in the area last Tuesday around 5:00 p.m. and lasted until 10:30 a.m. today. The site has been taken over by the owner, who is required to monitor it for six days. The investigation into the cause of the fire continues. The fire affected a plastic waste dump about 50 meters wide. The damage caused by the fire is tentatively estimated at CZK 3 million.

Police in Olomouc at the beginning of July arrested an armed man who was walking around a stranger's family home with a hood on his head. Investigators found a Škorpion submachine gun with a silencer and a machete in his possession. He allegedly wanted to scare the owner of the house. The 50-year-old man faces up to three years in prison for trespassing and making dangerous threats.

The Czech Police have shelved the case concerning former interior minister Jan Hamáček's planned but never made trip to Moscow last spring. According to the police, criminal liability ceased to exist because Hamáček voluntarily decided not to take the trip. The police inquired into the case based on a Seznam Zprávy report that Hamáček wanted to leave for Moscow in April 2021 in order to gain Sputnik V anti-Covid vaccines in exchange for covering up information about the investigation of the two explosions of arms depots in Vrbětice in 2014. Hamáček sued Seznam Zprávy, but a court dismissed the lawsuit in late May. That verdict is not definitive.