Prague - The economy is already in a recovery. The economy is still in a crisis. Strangely, both statements are true for the Czech Republic, depending on what region we are looking at.
In the era of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, the economically most dynamic parts of the Czech lands were industry-heavy regions bordering Germany - Northern and Western Bohemia.
Now it appears that the history is repeating itself. Plzeň, Liberec and Pardubice were the first to recover from the economic crisis, with unemployment decreasing significantly in the last two years. This drove economic growth also in neighboring districts.
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Since January 2010, the unemployment rate dropped by nearly one percentage point in the Czech Republic, but in Prague it stagnated, even increasing slightly. The same development took place in other large cities of the Czech Republic - Brno, Ostrava, České Budějovice, Hradec Králové and Ústí nad Labem.
These cities tend to have the largest number of public employees, and as such they have been affected the most by the government's austerity measures.
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The economic problems of the regions' capitals spread to the neighboring areas. Especially the Central Bohemian region that surrounds the capital has been hit by growing unemployment.
In addition to the industry-driven recovery in Plzeň, Liberec and Pardubice, agricultural regions in the south-east part of the country are rising too. The unemployment rate in the Vysočina and Zlín regions dropped at least by 1.5 percentage point in the two years.
