Archive of articles - September 1998

August producer prices down 0.2% month-on-month

Stock market hits another year low on VSŽ loss

Slovakia's official SAX index fell 5.36 points to a new year-low of 104.52 on September 23, in very quiet trading on the Bratislava Stock Exchange (BSE) during the last week. Only two issues traded and 154 stocks changed hands on the BSE's listed floor. Brokers said they saw a continuation of the downtrend.The Slovak stock market has been mired in low liquidity and light foreign investors activity over the past few months as the general negative perception of Slovakia's market enviroment intensified amid uncertainty over the September 25-26 national elections."The market is very depressed at the moment and I expect even further declines in the near future," one local broker said, adding that he did not expect this to change soon after the elections. "Only foreign investors could change this for the better, but the market environment will not become stable enough for them immediately after the elections," he added.

SDK leader will not play 'SNS card'

On the last full day of campaigning, The Slovak Spectator sat down to talk politics with Mikuláš Dzurinda, leader of the largest opposition party, the SDK. With 23% support going into elections on September 25, the SDK trailed the ruling HZDS party of Premier Vladimír Mečiar by less than 5%, and counted on forming the next government in coalition possibly with the Hungarian party, the centre-left SOP party and the reformed communist SDĽ party. Together, these four parties registered 58% support before the ballot.But as a coalition of five member parties, including a conservative, a liberal, a socialist and a green party, the SDK's political achilles heel has always been its inherent instability as a unit.

Liquidity shortage paralyses money market

Crown stays in small bandThe Slovak crown saw another week of relatively low volatility and low liquidity as domestic companies remain the only strong factor on the market that is able to influence the crown's movements.Corporate clients continued to buy small amounts of hard currencies, apparently to hedge their foreign loans as they fear that the crown might be devalued after the elections. However, the central bank stuck to its strategy of fixing the crown at stonger than market levels, which offset corporate selling and kept the currency within a range of between 5.0 and 6.0% on the weak side of the basket parity.

Nation holds breath for election results

With an almost audible cry of relief, party candidates wrapped up Campaign '98 with a final flurry of rallies on September 22. Town halls and city squares across the nation echoed with parting political shots, fired for the most part at small and docile crowds.The campaign pitted the free-spending and ostentatious Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) of Premier Vladimír Mečiar against lower-profile opposition parties like Mikuláš Dzurinda's centre-right Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and Rudolf Schuster's centre-left Party of Civic Understanding (SOP). Representatives of all parties said that the results of the September 25-26 vote would determine the future of the country for decades to come.

Slovak 1H98 current account deficit hits $1.1 billion

STV defies Council

Slovakia's government-run television station, STV, defied a warning from the country's official state media watchdog on September 23 and broadcast an illegal pre-election address to citizens from a senior deputy with the ruling HZDS party.Ivan Gašparovič advised Slovaks, who went to the polls on September 25, to "find a little time to think who offered you a chance to live in a free and independent state," and told voters to "speak with their hearts" at the polling booths. The campaign motto of theHZDS is "vote with your hearts."According to Slovakia's election law, it is illegal for mass media to publish or broadcast information favoring politivians or their parties within 48 hours of elections. Gašparovič's speech was sent out through STV transmitters about 40 hours before Slovaks voted.

Ratings agency adds nails to Slovak coffin

The world's most respected rating agency, Standard and Poor's, finally joined other major rating institutions in lowering Slovakia's credit ratings to speculative levels from the lowest investment grade. The move, announced in New York on September 17, was blasted by Slovak government officials, who said the agency had not done its homework on the country.Sergej Kozlík, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of economy, rejected the rating downgrades and accused rating agencies of failing to carry out deeper research of Slovakia's economic situation before taking decisions."I consider the conclusions of rating agencies to a large extent shallow, not deeply thought out and not reflecting a deep knowledge of the concrete situation in Slovakia," Kozlik told a banking conference at the Finex financial fair in Banská Bystrica.

Viagra impotency drug to swell Slovak drugstore shelves

Slovak men who have difficulty getting erections will soon be trying to get a lift from a new American wonder drug called Viagra. The small blue pill, already on sale in the US since 1997, takes deadly aim at one of the biggest male fears - impotence.Patrick Machan, country director for American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, which makes Viagra, told The Slovak Spectator on September 24 that his company had just submitted final EU certification documents to the Slovak state Department of Drug Registration. If all went well, he said, Viagra could be in Slovak stores just in time for Christmas.Machan said that the process of securing certification for Viagra in Slovakia had been long and arduous, despite the fact that the drug has been approved in all EU countries. "The state has had the analysis file for Viagra since November 1997, but they haven't done anything until just now."

M2 reaches record level as of July

Volkswagen sets up factory in Martin

Slovakofarma Hlohovec results worsen year-on-year

SNS would rid country of 'parasites'

The far-right Slovak National Party, led by Žilina mayor Ján Slota, has long been controversial for its racist policies and rhetoric. Sitting at 6.3% support in the last election poll, the SNS has fallen some way from the 14% it received in 1990 elections, but remains a force especially in the north of the country where Slota has fostered a healthy pace of infrastructure development.The SNS is basically a 'single issue' party, having as its focus the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, but also favors a return of the death penalty, neutrality for Slovakia, the protection of Christian values and a generally anti-western policy. The Slovak Spectator caught up with leader Slota in Bratislava on September 22.

Slovak August jobless rate declines to 13.76%

Banks extend helping hand to small fry

Small and medium enterprises have been thrown a cash lifeline by the Slovak Guaranty and Development Bank (SZRB). A new loan programme, announced by the bank in September, will pump 50 million deutschmarks into the sector, and development agencies are already hailing it as a boon to Slovakia's capital-starved businesses."I think it will be very useful," said Darina Kalužníková, director of financial support programmes at the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises. "It will attract a lot of interest because of the lack of capital resources in the country."

GDP leaps 6.1% year-on-year

More stars arrive to plug Mečiar

With election day drawing ever closer, there was no let-up in the stream of international celebrities coming from western Europe to Slovakia to help Premier Vladimír Mečiar's HZDS party carry the vote. The latter half of the election campaign saw the arrival of French film stars Gérard Depardieu and Claude Brasseu, as well as Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, all of whom were scourged by domestic and international media for meddling in Slovakia's domestic affairs."These aging stars are being paid millions [of francs] for their appearances in Slovakia, where the candidate political parties can spend maximum 12 million Sk [$350,000] on their campaigns," wrote the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on September 19.

SOP says "toughest time" coming

Less than 100 people attended the final campaign rally of the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP), an anticlimax to the party's month-longstump-tour of the country. Under sunny autumn skies in the northern Slovak city of Žilina, SOP leader Rudolf Schuster spoke briefly to the small crowd before bolting for Bratislava. The Slovak Spectator caught up with the SOP leader as he left the stage.The Slovak Spectator: Are you at all worried that the SDK [largest opposition party, consisting of five different member parties] will not be able to hold together over four years of cooperation with the SOP in a coalition government?Rudolf Schuster: I think there is no other way. Without such cooperation, there couldn't be an opposition victory. The SDK must know this - without the SOP, they wouldn't have enough votes to win, and wouldn't know what to do with their victory. But now that the SOP is here, we have to create a government together, the whole opposition. I'm sure we will collectively get 60% of the vote, which means we will be able to amend the constitution, which is very important.

Pulp and paper plant opens Sept. 21 in Ružomberok