The Czech economy will contract more in 2020 than the central bank has forecast after new measures to counter the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reported while quoting bank Governor Jiri Rusnok.

Rusnok reiterated that more policy easing was not needed.

The bank has forecast an 8.2 per cent economic drop this year. Rusnok said the situation was moving nearer to deeper forecasts seen in an alternative scenario looked at in the spring. The bank will release a new outlook in November.