The Czech economy will contract twice as fast this year as previously expected and the fiscal gap will grow faster as the economy suffers from a drop in foreign demand, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry slashed the 2009 GDP forecast to minus 4.3%, the deepest contraction since a post-communist crisis in 1991. Next year should see a return to growth of a mere 0.3%, the ministry’s official forecast showed on Wednesday.
