Slovakia - Factors To Watch on March 27

...     
    RATE SETTING MEETING 
    The central bank's policy-making board will hold its monthly 
monetary meeting. The market expects the main two-week repo rate 
to be cut by 25-50 basis points from 4.75 percent. Rate decision 
is expected between 0900 and 1100 GMT, news conference is 
scheduled for 1100 GMT. 
     
    REPO TENDER 
    The central bank will hold a regular two-week repo tender. 
     
    CURRENT ACCOUNT 
    The central bank will release January current account data. 
     
    FOREIGN DEBT 
    The central bank will release foreign debt data for 2006. 
     
    VOLKSWAGEN NEWS CONFERENCE 
    Volkswagen Slovakia will hold a news conference on its 
output outlook, 0730 GMT. 
     
    TRADE UNIONS CONGRESS 
    Trade unions will hold a news conference after their annual 
congress, 1300 GMT. 
     
    EMPLOYERS' NEWS CONFERENCE 
    Employers association will hold a news conference on labour 
code amendments, 1030 GMT. 
     
    ECONOMIC CONFERENCE 
    The statistics office will host a conference on Slovakia's 
economic trends. 
     
    PARLIAMENT MEETING 
    The Slovak Parliament continues its regular monthly session. 
     
    2006 FISCAL DEFICIT BEATS TARGET 
    Slovakia's public finance deficit totalled 3.6 percent of 
gross domestic product in 2006, below the original fiscal 
deficit ceiling of 4.2 percent of GDP, a finance ministry 
spokesman said on Monday. 
    [ID:nL26712335] [RTRS-GVD-DBT-SK] 
     
    OPPOSITION WANT ECONOMY MINISTER OUT OF GOVT 
    Slovak opposition MPs said on Monday they want a vote of no 
confidence in Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek, accusing him of 
promoting corruption. 
    [ID:nL26659811] [RTRS-EUROPE-POL-SK] 
     
    CROWN RANGEBOUND VS EURO, EYES RATE DECISION 
    The Slovak crown traded in a narrow range versus the euro on 
Monday ahead of the central bank's (NBS) monthly policy meeting 
on Tuesday, dealers said. 
    [ID:nL26662459] [RTRS-MMT-FRX-SK] 
     
    PRESS DIGEST 
    ------------ 
    LABOUR CODE 
    The three ruling coalition partners have agreed on labour 
code changes proposed by Prime Minister Robert Fico's Smer 
party. The amendments, introducing better protection of workers 
and boosting powers of trade unions, have been criticised by 
businesses and economic analysts. 
    Hospodarske Noviny, page 1 
     
    KIA BEATS PRODUCTION PLAN 
    The Slovak plant of South Korea's car maker Kia Motors Corp. 
 has produced 24,000 units from the start of the 
year, exceeding originally projected monthly output volumes. 
    Sme, page 7 
     
    RAILWYAS INVESTMENTS 
    The state-owned Slovak Railways plan to invest 10 billion 
crowns ($394.9 million) in 2007. Some 2.5 billion crowns should 
come from railways' own sources. 
    Sme, page 7 
     
    CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES TO SUE SLOVAKIA 
    Construction companies, facing a record fine of 1.36 billion 
crown for colluding bids in a highway tender, said they would 
sue Slovakia. The state has banned the firms from participating 
in public deals. 
    Pravda, page 1 
     
    For news on upcoming events in the United States and other 
Group of Seven countries, see . For a diary of 
forthcoming Slovak events, double click [SK/DIARY], and a 
calendar of east European economic indicators, see [CONV/DIARY]. 
     
    News editor of the day: Peter Laca, on +421 2 5341 8402; 
fax: +421 2 5341 8403 
    E-mail: editorial@reuters.sk 
    Reuters Messaging: pater.laca.reuters.com@reuters.net 
     
 For real-time index quotes, double click in brackets: 
 Warsaw WIG20   Budapest BUX   Prague PX50  
 Other related news: 
 Slovak equities      [SK-E]  E.Europe equities           [.CEE] 
 Slovak money         [SK-M]  Czech debt                  [CZ-D] 
 Slovak Indicators  [SK-ECI]  Emerging forex          [EMRG/FRX] 
 Eastern European     [EEU]   All emerging markets        [EMRG] 
 Hot stocks           [HOT]   Stock markets                [STX] 
 Market debt news     [DBT]   Forex news                   [FRX] 
 TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets                         [TOP/EMRG] 
 TOP NEWS -- Convergence watch                        [TOP/EAST] 
 
  
 ($1=25.32 Slovak Crown)