Czech Republic

The Czech Republic shares its borders with Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia and covers an area of 78,866 sq. kilometers about the size of Virginia. Czech Republic’s total population is 10.16 million and is shrinking at a rate of 0.15% with 73.4% living in urban areas. The capital city of Prague has a population of 1.21 million and the official language is Czech. The people are governed by a parliamentary democracy and the majority are unaffiliated to any religious group. The Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004, but currently uses the Czech koruna as currency targeting to join the Euro zone by 2012.

The Czech Republic has one of the most stable economies in Eastern Europe and its central location in Europe and low-cost structure makes it an attractive country to do business. Most of Czech Republic’s trade is with other countries in Europe, mainly Germany, but also including Slovakia, Poland, Netherlands, France, UK, Italy, and Austria, along with China and Russia outside of Europe. Its primary imports and exports consist of machinery and transport equipment, raw materials and fuels, and chemicals. Czech Republic’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $266.3 billion and is shrinking at a real rate of 1% with an inflation rate of 3.3%. Czech Republic ranked 65th out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.

Doing Business in Czech Republic(2012)Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in the Czech Republic

Reform of European Union Rules on Distribution(2010)

European Commission's New Block Exemption Rules Enter Into Force June 1(2010)

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.