Slovak crown falls to 2-wk lows vs euro, seen soft

...and dealers said the unit was likely to 
stay soft in the short run. 
    At 0820 GMT, the crown traded at 33.530 per euro , 
close to 33.535, its weakest level since April 4. The unit ended 
trading at 33.465 on Wednesday. 
    "It is the reaction on weakening in the region, where both 
the Hungarian forint and the Polish zloty fell," said Slovenska 
Sporitelna dealer Vladimir Gajdos. 
    "There will be also the central bank's meeting where a part 
of the market expects to see an interest rate cut ... so the 
crown is likely to stay weaker," he said. 
    The central bank (NBS) board meets on April 24 to discuss 
policy settings and new inflation forecasts, key to Slovakia's 
euro adoption planned for 2009. 
    Some analysts think the NBS will reduce its key rate by 25 
basis points next week to temper the crown's strength. The main 
rate stands at 4.5 percent, at a 75 basis-point premium over the 
euro zone benchmark, after a quarter point cut last month. 
    The crown did not react to Thursday's release of March 
jobless data, which showed the unemployment rate fell to a 
record low of 8.89 percent from February's 9.2 percent. 
------------------ MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 0820 GMT ----------------- 
Crown/euro  33.530 vs 33.465 on Wednesday (-0.19 pct) 
Crown/dollar   at 24.658 vs 24.625 (-0.13) 
5-yr govt bond  yield 4.137/3.918 vs 4.089/3.689 pct 
7-yr govt bond  yield 4.299/4.150 vs 4.287/4.087 pct 
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