BROADCASTS.com

The Czech National Bank (\u010cNB) has chosen to raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 5.75 percent, the highest rate since 1999. The hike is also slightly higher than most analysts expected and some have even warned of a stagflation effect as high interest rates may cripple economic growth. To find out whether these concerns are justified, I spoke to V\xedt Hradil, the chief economist at the investment firm Cyrrus, and began by asking him whether he was surprised by the \u010cNB\u2019s decision.