OtherOther Economy

NBS: Prices Should Grow More Slowly This Year Than Previously Expected

Bratislava, October 25 (TASR) - The prices of goods and services in Slovakia should increase at a slightly slower rate this year than was previously expected, with bank analysts in October slightly reducing their estimates for average inflation for 2010 from the 1.8 percent expected in September to 1.6 percent, Slovakia's central bank (NBS) has reported. Estimates of… read more

Analysts: Employment Levels Will Improve, But Very Slowly

Bratislava, October 24 (TASR) - Employment rates in Slovakia will only improve slowly, according to estimates made by analysts approached by TASR. With this in mind, the year-on-year decrease in unemployment reported in October, the first since the end of 2008, is good news. "I'm expecting a slight improvement in the situation on the labour market in the next… read more

STV Board to Select New Chairman and Decide on Future of STV3

Bratislava, October 24 (TASR) - The Slovak Television (STV) Council is due to select its new chairman on Wednesday, October 27. Current chairman Martin Kakos resigned from the post in mid-October, rationalising his decision by pointing to criticism published in the media, as well as the planned merger of STV and Slovak Radio (SRo). "My resignation doesn't mean that the… read more

Miskov: Reverse Gas Flow From Austria to Slovakia Is Now Possible

Bratislava/Baumgarten, October 24 (TASR) - The construction work enabling a reverse gas flow from Austria to Slovakia in the case of another gas crisis was completed in Baumgarten, Austria on Sunday. The ceremonial closing down of the work was attended by Slovak Economy and Construction Minister Juraj Miskov, Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and representatives… read more

Skymoen: Norwegian Royals Interested in Slovakia, Its Cities and People

Slovakia will be honoured to welcome His Majesty Norwegian King Harald V and Her Majesty Queen Sonja to the country on October 25-28. To mark their first state visit to Slovakia, TASR has held an interview with Norwegian Ambassador to Slovakia Trine Skymoen in order to find out more about the couple, their visit, hobbies and homeland. -It's known that the Norwegian royal… read more

Mihal: Less Than Ten Percent of Young People Are Entering Second Pillar

Bratislava, October 23 (TASR) - The interest of young people to enter the second pillar of the pension system is lame, Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Jozef Mihal (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) has said. "At the current conditions, when entering the second pillar isn't compulsory for young people, less then ten percent of young people decide to join," he… read more

SNS Took Part in Meeting of Far-Right Parties in Austria

Bratislava/Vienna, October 23 (TASR) - A representative of the Slovak National Party (SNS) took part in the meeting of right-wing European parties in Vienna on Friday and Saturday, in order to discuss the issue of Turkey's EU accession process and strengthen the co-operation between the parties. SNS spokesperson Jana Benkova told TASR that SNS chairman Jan Slota was invited… read more

Parliamentary Committee Calls on China to Free Peace Nobel Prize Winner

Bratislava, October 23 (TASR) - Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights has welcomed the decision to award the Peace Nobel Prize to Chinese dissident Liu-Xia-Bao and adopted a resolution calling on the Chinese Government to release the dissident from prison, TASR was told by the submitter of the resolution and the committee vice-chair Ondrej Dostal (Most-Hid). "Various… read more

Skymoen: Slovakia Offers Quite a Good Environment for Norwegian Investors

Bratislava, October 23 (TASR) - Norwegian investors view the quality of the investment conditions in Slovakia as quite good, but the corruption still remains a barrier, Norwegian Ambassador Trine Skymoen has told TASR in an interview. "In general, the investment environment in Slovakia is quite good and most Norwegian companies haven't had significant problems so far.… read more

Dzurinda: Diversification of Gas Supplies Isn\'t Directed against Russia

Bratislava, October 23 (TASR) - When it comes to the relations with Russia, Slovakia will be taking up the same stance, which enabled it to host the summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George Bush in Bratislava in February 2005, Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has said. Dzurinda stressed that Slovakia is eminently interested… read more

Kovalcik: Transport Ministry Ex-management Faked Facts About PPPs

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - Former management at the Transport Ministry corrupted the data on highway construction via the so-called public-private partnership (PPPs), namely in the first package of these projects - which has been discontinued by the new Government only recently, according to the ministry's Strategy Institute director Jan Kovalcik on Friday. "The… read more

Slovakia and Neighbours Help Facilitate Better Kosovo-Serbia Relations

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - Slovakia and neighbouring countries the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – forming the Visegrad Four group – succeeded Friday in informal talks with Serbia and its breakaway province Kosovo to have them agree to meet and discuss their bilateral relations in the near future. "This day has brought a positive change into this issue,"… read more

Public Finances Gap Puts Slovakia Alongside Countries at EU Tail-End

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - Slovakia's 2009 public finances deficit reported by the Statistics Office on Friday at 7.9 percent of gross domestic product puts Slovakia alongside the European Union's worst-performing countries Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (PIGS), said the finance ministry in reaction. The 7.93 percent gap forwarded to European Union Eurostat… read more

Stats Office Revises 2009 Deficit from 6.77 % of GDP to 7.93 %

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - The public finance deficit for 2009 came in at 7.93 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), a far more precipitous shortfall than the 2.09 percent in 2008 and more than the 6.77 percent estimated this spring by the Statistics Office, it was reported on Friday. The 2009 data revised by the Stats Office as of October 1 has been forwarded… read more

George Soros Ends His Visit to Slovakia

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - Financier and philanthropist George Soros, 80, the founder of the 'Open Society Foundation' (NOS) and 'Decade of Roma Inclusion' initiative, has ended his short visit to Slovakia on Friday, Barbara Horvathova from the NOS media department told TASR on the same day. Soros concluded his visit with meeting diplomats from the US, Canada and… read more