Slovak Sept PPI off record lows, rates seen flat

...Friday, but the jump was unlikely to 
trigger a monetary policy change. 
    Factory gate costs were up 1.6 percent on the year in 
September, up from an all-time low of 0.5 percent in August, the 
Slovak Statistics Office said. 
    On the month, prices jumped 0.5 percent after an August drop 
of 0.2 percent. Analysts had forecast producer prices to stay 
flat on the month and rise by 1.2 percent year-on-year. 
    "There was quite a surprising increase in items that had not 
been rising very much so far, which are transportation equipment 
and electrical goods," said Juraj Valachy, a Tatra Banka analyst 
in Bratislava. 
    Manufactured products accelerated by 0.6 percent on the 
month in September after a 0.2 percent drop in August, while 
mineral resources jumped by 1.1 percent month-on-month after a 
1.6 decrease seen in August. 
    Valachy saw the jump as a one-off event, and expected no 
implication for the central bank's monetary policy setting. 
    The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) bank will meet on 
interest rates on Oct. 30. All analysts in the Reuters poll 
earlier this month expected the key two-week repo rate to stay 
unchanged at 4.25 percent. 
    "Although the data surprised on the negative side, since the 
pass through effect on CPI is rather limited, NBS is unlikely to 
be seriously concerned with the latest reading for PPI," said 
Piotr Matys analyst with 4Cast London. 
    Producer price growth has subsided this year, partly due to 
government pressure on utilities to keep energy prices down 
ahead of euro adoption planned for 2009. 
   (For details pls see [ID:nL26772814]) 
   - For further details on September producer prices, Reuters 
3000 Xtra users can click on the statistics office's website: 
   http://www.statistics.sk/webdata/english/index2_a.htm     
   
  Keywords: SLOVAKIA ECONOMY/PPI 
    

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]