INSTANT VIEW 2-Slovak Oct EU-norm CPI well above fcasts

...the Slovak 
Statistics Office said on Thursday. 
**************************************************************** 
 KEY POINTS: 
 SLOVAK EU-NORM INFLATION         OCT 07      OCT 07 FORECAST 
  pct change mo/mo                +0.7           +0.2 
  pct change yr/yr                +2.4           +1.9 
(Details of Oct inflation data .............[ID:nBSD000057]) 
  
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have a strong 
weighting in the consumer price basket, rose by 2.9 percent 
month-on-month, after a 0.8 percent rise in September. 
- Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel prices, which 
pushed inflation up last year, is flat on the month in October, 
after a 0.1 percent increase in September. 
- Transportation prices rise by 0.1 percent month-on-month, 
after a 0.1 percent dip in September. 
- Annual price growth in the housing category, which has the 
strongest weighting in the basket, is 2.2 percent in October. 
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages is up 6.4 percent on the 
year. 
     
 ANALYST COMMENTS: 
    EDUARD HAGARA, ANALYST, ING BANK, BRATISLAVA 
    "The figure is not a big surprise after the local data 
release on Monday ... with food prices behind the rise. 
    "There should be no risk to meet the Maastricht criteria 
despite inflation quickening. The buffer should be big enough in 
March and April 2008, when we see inflation at 1.8 percent and 
the reference value probably above 2.5 percent. 
    "There are no implications for the central bank as food 
price rise is a global trend. We expect the bank to wait for the 
ECB (European Central Bank) to raise interest rates, which we 
see only at the end of 2008." 
 
 MARKET REACTION: 
 - The Slovak crown was at 32.995 per euro  as of 0710 
GMT, compared with 32.970 before the data release. It closed at 
32.970 on Wednesday. 
     
BACKGROUND:  
 - The central bank (NBS) follows inflation calculated by the EU 
methodology as a part of Slovakia's plan to adopt the euro in 
2009. 
 - Prices under the local methodology rose 0.6 percent on the 
month in October, putting the annual rate at 3.3 percent. 
 - Slovakia aims to meet all criteria for euro adoption in 2008. 
The central bank predicts the EU-norm inflation rate of 1.6 
percent at the end of 2007. 
 - The central bank left its key two-week repo rate at 4.25 
percent in October, for the sixth month in a row, saying that 
the strong crown had tightened monetary conditions. 
     
LINKS: 
- For further details on October inflation and other past data, 
Reuters 3000 Xtra users can click on the Slovak Statistics 
Office's website: 
http://wwww.statistics.sk/webdata/english/index2_a.htm 
      
- For LIVE Slovak economic data releases, click on...... 
- Schedule of upcoming indicator releases............ 
- Summary of short-term economic data forecasts...... 
- Stories on Slovak currency moves........................[SKK/] 
- Slovak speed money guide ................................ 
- Slovak benchmark state bond prices ................. 
- Slovak forward money market rates .................... 
   (Reporting by Peter Laca and Martin Dokoupil) 
   
  Keywords: SLOVAKIA INFLATION/  
    

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]