Slovakia - Factors To Watch on Jan 19

    Here are news stories, press 
reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial 
markets on Friday. 
     
    SDKU NEWS CONFERENCE 
    The opposition party SDKU of ex-Prime Minister Mikulas 
Dzurinda holds a news conference on foreign policy at 10 a.m. 
(0900 GMT). 
     
    C.BANK TO RELEASE WEEKLY FOREX RESERVES DATA 
    The central bank releases weekly forex reserves data 2 p.m. 
(1300 GMT). 
     
    SLOVAKIA MAY MEET EURO INFLATION GOAL SOONER-CBANKER 
    Slovakia could meet the Maastricht Criteria for inflation 
earlier than previously expected, central bank (NBS) board 
member Peter Sevcovic was quoted as saying in daily Hospodarske 
Noviny on Thursday. 
    [nL18923572] [RTRS-MCE-ECI-CEN-SK] 
     
    EU RAIDS CALCIUM CARBIDE FIRMS, SUSPECTS CARTEL 
    Chemical companies in four countries have been raided by the 
European Commission on suspicion of fixing prices for a chemical 
used in steelmaking, the Commission and several companies said 
on Thursday. 
    [nL18112148] [RTRS-CHEM-REGS-EU-SK] 
     
    SLOVAKIA SAYS SEES FDI IMPROVEMENT IN 2007 
    Slovakia will see a rise in foreign direct investment this 
year from the 607 million euros ($786.4 million) recorded in 
2006, the government investment agency SARIO said on Thursday. 
    [nL18494760] [RTRS-TRD-AUT-EMRG-SK] 
     
    DEC JOBLESS RATE RISES TO 9.40 PCT 
    Slovakia's unemployment rate rose to 9.40 percent in 
December from a record low of 9.12 percent in the previous 
month, data released by the National Labour Office showed on 
Thursday. 
    [nPRG000206] [RTRS-MCE-JOB-SK] 
     
    PRESS DIGEST 
    ------------ 
    TELECOMM OFFICE, TELEFONICE SHIELD MOBILE TENDER 
    The Slovak Telecommunication Office and Spain's Telefonica 
 defended the verdict of the tender for the third Slovak 
mobile phone network operating licence, challenged by the 
Bratislava district attorney. 
    Telefonica is expected to launch commercial services in 
February. 
    Sme, page 2 
     
    BRATISLAVA AIRPORT INVESTMENT PLAN LIMPS 
    Slovakia's largest airport Bratislava eyes lower investment 
inflows by 2010, after the leftist government of Robert Fico 
scuppered the airport sale to a consortium led by Flughafen Wien 
, the economy ministry said. 
    Sme, page 7 
     
    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: Martin Dokoupil on +421 2 5341 8402; 
fax: +421 2 5341 8403 
    E-mail: editorial@reuters.sk 
    Reuters Messaging: martin.dokoupil.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] 
 
 ((Compiled by Martin Santa; Bratislava Newsroom; Email: 
editorial@reuters.sk; +421-2-5341-8402)) 
  

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]