Slovakia - Factors To Watch on Jan 3

    Here are news stories, press 
reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial 
markets on Wednesday. 
     
    CBANK USES REPO TO COUNTER CROWN STRENGTH 
    The Slovak central bank (NBS) stepped up its effort to slow 
the firming pace of the crown currency on Tuesday by rejecting 
some of the bids in a regular repo tender to leave banks with 
billions in excess crown funds. 
    [ID:nL02851190] [RTRS-CEN-FRX-SK] 
     
    2006 BUDGET GAP BELOW PLAN ON STRONG GDP 
    Slovakia's central state budget deficit totalled 31.68 
billion crowns ($1.21 billion) for the full year 2006, well 
below the projected ceiling of 57.47 billion, as the economy 
grew more quickly than expected. 
    [ID:nL02854070] [RTRS-MCE-ECI-GVD-SK] 
     
    SLOVAKIA LEVIES $11.5 MLN FINE ON REFINER SLOVNAFT 
    Slovakia's competition watchdog levied a fine of 300 million 
crowns ($11.46 million) on oil refiner Slovnaft  for 
abusing its market position, the office said on Tuesday. 
    [ID:nL02850058] [RTRS-EMRG-PROD-CHE-SK] 
     
    PRESS DIGEST 
    ------------ 
    RULING COALITION SQUABBLES 
    The three-party ruling coalition will continue bickering 
over many issues this year, such as posts in state-run 
institutions and companies, the daily Hospodarske Noviny quotes 
political analysts as saying. Observers, however, said the 
ruling grouping will survive any internal squabbles. 
    Hospodarske Noviny, page 2 
     
    KIA SLOVAKIA TO MAKE 150,000 CARS IN 2007 
    The Slovak plant of South Korean car maker Kia Motors Corp. 
 expects to produce 150,000 cars in 2007. The factory 
assembled 5,000 units in 2006, as planned. 
    Sme, page 7 
     
    PENTA GETS GREEN LIGHT TO BUY AERO 
    The Czech Anti-Monopoly Office has approved the acquisition 
of a 99.97 percent stake in the military jet maker Aero 
Vodochody by private equity group Penta. Penta has offered to 
pay 2.91 billion Czech crowns ($140.4 million) for the company. 
    Pravda, page 10 
     
    For an economic indicator diary for the euro zone, the 
United States and other Group of Seven countries, see . 
For a diary of forthcoming Slovak events, double click 
[SK/DIARY], and a calendar of east European economic indicators, 
see [CONV/DIARY]. 
     
    News editor of the day: Peter Laca on +421 2 5341 8402; fax: 
+421 2 5341 8403 
     E-mail: bratislava.newsroom@reuters.com 
    Reuters Messaging: peter.laca.reuters.com@reuters.net 
     
 For real-time index quotes, double click in brackets: 
 Warsaw WIG20   Budapest BUX   Prague PX50  
 Other related news: 
 Slovak equities      [SK-E]  E.Europe equities           [.CEE] 
 Slovak money         [SK-M]  Czech debt                  [CZ-D] 
 Slovak Indicators  [SK-ECI]  Emerging forex          [EMRG/FRX] 
 Eastern European     [EEU]   All emerging markets        [EMRG] 
 Hot stocks           [HOT]   Stock markets                [STX] 
 Market debt news     [DBT]   Forex news                   [FRX] 
 TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets                         [TOP/EMRG] 
 TOP NEWS -- Convergence watch                        [TOP/EAST] 
 ((Bratislava Newsroom; Email: bratislava.newsroom@reuters.com; 
+421-905-602-847)) 
 ($1=20.72 Czech Crown) 
  

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]