Slovakia - Factors To Watch on Sept 19

...
     
    C.BANK VICE-GOVERNOR TO SPEAK 
    Central Bank Vice-Governor Viliam Ostrozlik will address a 
financial conference in the central Slovak town of Banska 
Bystrica (0830 GMT) 
     
    GOVERNMENT MEETING 
    The government will hold its regular weekly meeting. 
     
    UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HITS RECORD LOW IN AUGUST 
    Slovakia's booming economy helped drive its unemployment 
rate to record lows last month, Labour Office data showed on 
Tuesday, but the jobless statistics are expected to worsen 
temporarily this month. 
    [ID:nL18171216] [RTRS-MCE-ECI-JOB-SK] 
     
    CROWN SLIPS TO 3-MO LOW VS EURO, AWAITS FED 
    The Slovak crown slipped to a nearly three-month low against 
the euro on Tuesday as investors cut exposure ahead of an 
interest rate decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve, dealers 
said. 
    [ID:nL18774870] [RTRS-MMT-FRX-SK] 
     
    CBANK DRAINS SKK 155.5 BLN IN REPO TENDER 
    The Slovak central bank (NBS) accepted all bids in a regular 
two-week repo tender on Tuesday, draining 155.542 billion crowns 
($6.36 billion) from the market, NBS data showed. 
    [ID:nL18691399] [RTRS-MMT-CEN-SK] 
     
    PRESS DIGEST 
    ------------ 
    PENSION GUARANTEES 
    The finance ministry has so far not specified what returns 
should be guaranteed by private pension funds. Finance Minister 
Jan Pociatek has recently said he wants the pension funds to 
guarantee returns at least matching inflation, but he stopped 
short of giving any details. 
    Sme, page 6 
     
    PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 
    The Smer party is not considering nominating its leader and 
Prime Minister Robert Fico as a candidate for the 2009 
presidential election. Fico's ruling partner, the former 
authoritarian leader Vladimir Meciar, said he would prefer 
current prime minister as a candidate for president. 
    Pravda, page 4 
     
    PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS 
    The government wants to extend the public private 
partnership scheme from state highway construction to municipal 
infrastructure projects, such as construction of schools or 
hospitals. 
    Pravda, page 19 
     
    TELEKOM FINE ANNULLED 
    The district court in Bratislava has annulled an 80 million 
crown fine levied on Slovak Telekom, a unit of Deutsche Telekom. 
The Antimonopoly Bureau had fined Slovak Telekom for alleged 
abuse of its dominant position in a 2004 communication system 
tender. 
    Hospodarske Noviny, page 15 
     
    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: peter.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]