Slovak crown at 3 month lows, deficit worries linger

...EU demand for revisions to the country's 
budget deficit data and its impact on its euro adoption plan. 
    The crown traded at 33.990 per euro  as of 1430 GMT 
on Friday, compared with 33.845 late on Thursday. The unit has 
hovered at levels last seen in mid-June all week. 
    The Polish zloty and Hungarian forint, which often set the 
trend for crown movements, edged up on Friday. 
    "Offshore players simply prefer to stay out at this stage 
and wait for the situation to clarify," said Piotr Matys, 
analyst with 4Cast Limited. "Once the Eurostat story is 
clarified, offshore players will start to like the crown again." 
    Eurostat demands Slovaks to recalculate its fiscal data for 
2006 and 2007, which may result in higher public finance 
deficits. 
    Finance ministry and central bank officials have said any 
revision of the 2007 budget deficit, which will be key for 
Slovakia's ambition to enter the euro zone in 2009, will not 
threaten the euro adoption timetable. 
    The finance ministry expects the 2007 fiscal gap to be 
revised by no more than 0.27 percent of GDP, which should still 
keep the country under the 3 percent limit for euro adoption. 
    Some analysts, however, had other concerns as well, such as 
fulfilment of the currency stability criterion. 
    "Fiscal deficit revision is not the last attack, I think," 
said Miroslav Plojhar, an analyst with JPMorgan. "I'm curious to 
see if the ECB's convergence report will challenge the Slovak 
central bank's active role in the forex market." 
 --------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1405 GMT ------------------- 
 Crown/euro at 33.970 vs 33.845 on Thursday 
 Crown/dollar  at 24.080 bid vs 24.010 
 5-yr bond yld due Mar 2012  at 4.479/4.259 pct 
10-yr bond yld due April 2017  at 4.700/4.500 pct 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------