21/03/2024 13:21
At its
March meeting yesterday, the Czech National Bank cut interest rates by a
further 50bp and confirmed its determination to continue easing only gradually.
The main reasons for this are the weaker koruna and continued rapid rise in
services prices. According to Governor Michl, these two factors will determine
the future course of interest rates. We expect them to be lowered by 50bp at
the May, June and August meetings, which would reduce the current mismatch
between interest rates and economic and inflation developments. We expect the
repo rate to fall to 3.5% by the end of the year. The bank board still
considers the policy-neutral interest rate of 3% to be too low. In this
context, the central bank should publish an analysis of the policy-neutral level
in May.
27/03/2024 13:51
Philip Morris CR's (PMCR) results for the second half of last
year and for the year as a whole were slightly lower than in the previous year.
Revenues for the second half of the year amounted to CZK10.9bn (-2.5% yoy),
while net profit was CZK1.7bn (-6.4% yoy). PMCR proposes to the AGM
to approve a dividend of CZK1,220 per share, which represents a (gross) yield
of +7.8%. The reported figures are almost in line with our forecasts.
Operating profit was slightly better (+4.0%) than we expected.