Slovak Jan-July C/A gap narrows y/y to SKK 40.5 bln

...January-July, compared with an 85.75 billion gap in the same period of 2006, the central bank (NBS) said on Tuesday.

The NBS revised the current account gap for January-June 2007 to 40.4 billion crowns from an originally reported 19.1 billion crown deficit.

A central bank official said the sharp revision was due to the outflow of dividend payments to foreign owners of Slovak companies, which was a seasonal development seen every year.

Analysts expect Slovakia's external balance to improve significantly this year due to rising production at new car factories built by Kia Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroen .