UPDATE 2-Slovak cbanker sees no big budget revision impact

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By Peter Laca

An expected revision of Slovak budget figures will have no major negative impact on the country's chances of meeting criteria for joining the euro zone in 2009, central bank Governor Ivan Sramko said on Tuesday.

The EU's statistical service, Eurostat, has been in talks with Slovakia on revising the budget figures, which could lead to a higher deficit this year.

Some investors have sold crowns as they feared the budget recalculation could boost the fiscal deficit beyond the euro adoption threshold of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product, the ceiling for euro entry.

"I personally do not expect this to significantly worsen Slovakia's chances to meet the (euro adoption) criterion," Sramko told an economic conference.

He repeated a government estimate that the revision would not add more than 0.2-0.3 percentage points to the deficit this year, which would not push it above the 3 percent of GDP limit.

Sramko reiterated that he expected Slovakia to meet the nominal inflation criterion for the euro adoption, predicting an average inflation rate at around 1.7 percent next spring when Slovakia's application will be assessed. The central bank expects the reference inflation ceiling for euro adoption, defined as 1.5 percentage points above the average of the three lowest inflation rates in the EU, to be 2.7 percent.

"Chances to meet the criteria have never been better than today," he said.

Sramko also rejected concerns that a strengthening of the Slovak crown was artificially pushing inflation lower and that he viewed the crown currency as relatively stable in the past few weeks and he saw no reason for any special comment on it.

"Our analysis shows that the impact of crown strengthening on inflation is not as significant as seen in the view of the European Commission or the European Central Bank," he said.

The crown dropped to 3-month lows last week of on the uncertainty related to the budget revision, but has since swung back.

It stood at 33.570 against the euro as of 1045 GMT, 0.4 percent firmer from Monday's close of 33.705 per euro.

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]