The impacts of the US financial crisis on the Czech economy

The current global financial crisis originated in the United States of America because of combination of several facts, such as the "dot-com bubble" at the beginning of the 21st century, often criticised FED's actions, inconsiderate granting credit to higher-risk borrowers, securitization of this sub-prime mortgages, and resulting the real estate bubble and it's burst. The mortgage crisis, which subsequently overgrew into the world financial crisis, was transmitted in almost all economies in the world thanks to progressing globalisation and interdependence between states. The Czech Republic was affected mainly by indirect channels from the Euro Area, especially from Germany, our biggest trading partner. Not only exporters, whose orders are declining, who are obliged to lower costs and discharge employees, feel the negative impacts. Banks made terms of credit more restrictive for households as well as for enterprises. The Czech economy is probably from October 2008 in recession and for year 2009 is according to the estimates from the Czech State Bank, International Monetary Fund, or European Commission, even deeper decline in GDP expected. Our government have prepared an anti-crisis plan and precautions, but they still don't have a definitive form due to the instability and changes on Czech political scene.