Prague - Czech energy company CEZ has offered retail customers a price freeze for 2010, amid fears that high energy costs would hurt households and small businesses in the economic downturn, a company executive said Tuesday.

The offer came days after the state-controlled firm said it plans to hike electricity prices by nearly 10 per cent in 2009, a move that outraged businesses, worried that expensive energy would send them under in a slowing economy.

The Czech Republic has not been directly hit by the turmoil in the global financial markets, but the country's economy is expected to cool significantly owing to declining demand in its major market, the eurozone.

CEZ's chief executive officer Martin Roman told reporters that the energy giant decided to slash its margins amid the financial crisis in order to keep small business clients afloat.

"If they went bankrupt ... we would make less in the end," he said. "This is the best plan from a long-term perspective."

The firm offered clients the price freeze pegged to the current rate on the Prague Energy Exchange, which has dropped significantly in recent months. Roman said he is likely to fix his household price for 2010.

The firm's chief sales officer Alan Svoboda said the fixed price for 2010 would be "almost certainly" lower than the price next year.

Customers could also chose to speculate on the further price fall, Roman said.

CEZ, the Czech Republic's chief electricity producer with stakes across the former Eastern Bloc, competes with Germany's E. ON in power distribution on the Czech market.

Roman said that the firm's profitability growth has slowed down amid the crisis but has not come to a halt. CEZ repeated last month it expects to make 48.6 billion koruny
(2.4 billion dollars) this year. (dpa)