Archive of articles - June 1999, page 5

Slovakia's forex reserves fall below $4 billion

Cabinet finds rare unity over reform

After eight months of political foot-dragging over economic reforms, the government needed only two weeks to announce and then approve its latest package of harsh austerity measures. But although the cabinet made a great display of unity over the package after its May 31 session, few were fooled - compromise on reform, analysts agreed, had both diluted the measures themselves and tested the unity of the government.At the end of May, the cabinet approved an increase in the basic VAT tax bracket, a 7% import surcharge and hikes in the regulated prices for heating, housing, electricity, natural gas and travel.

President Schuster: Not just another chicken in the box

Slovakia finally has a president - 65 year-old Košice Mayor Rudolf Schuster, who won the May 29 ballot by a 15% margin over former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar.For western diplomats and foreign investors, it is irrelevant that Schuster is a former top communist official. Indeed, as long as it did not elect the authoritarian Mečiar, Slovakia could have chosen a donkey for its top executive office and still have won praise in the west for having taken another positive step on the path towards a stable democracy and a calm political environment.

Quote of the Week

"I keep waiting for him to complain about the lack of pedicures and manicures."

Bratislava Castle south hill may be re-developed

Local government association affirms decentralization plans

Kosovo crisis hammers selected Slovak firms

Bombs dropped by NATO warplanes on Yugoslavia and its Danube River supply routes are sending shockwaves through the economies of neighbouring economies. Slovak shipping and trading firms say that impasses on the Danube River and the economic isolation of Yugoslavia are costing them millions of crowns in lost revenues every day, and are demanding compensation."I've had to send 300 employees home and cut their wages back 40%," said Peter Murín, the head of import-export firm Chirana Prema, explaining that his firm has been unable to fulfill its contracts with its Yugoslav customers since the NATO bombing began on March 23. "Our losses stand at 5.4 million marks [120 million Slovak crowns] so far," he said.

Around Slovakia

Dirtiest child in Slovakia lives in BratislavaBody hauled from riverLexa wants better cigarettesMarksman wings neighbour instead of tin canResearcher warns against bringing home wild animalsOrphan cub baptised in Zoo

Letter to the Editor

Tesco hypermarket opens in Nitra

Schuster 'acceptable,' says West

Rudolf Schuster, the mayor of Košice and chairman of the minor political Party of Civic Reconciliation (SOP), became Slovakia's first directly elected president on May 29 after beating his rival, former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar by a comfortable 15% margin.According to western diplomats and observers, the result of the run-off ballot corroborated Slovakia's pro-western orientation and the country's ambitions towards European Union and NATO membership.US Ambassador to Slovakia Ralph Johnson said he was pleased with the results of the election, which he said proved the democratic development of Slovakia since the national elections last September. "There's no doubt that Mr. Schuster will be acceptable not only for the US, but for the whole of Europe," Johnson said at a June 1 press conference.

American real estate experts to attend conference in Bratislava

Slovak parliament sends sapper battalion to Albania

Slovak central bank says ČSOB stake to be sold

Language law held up by squabble

If the cabinet fails to adopt the long-promised law on minority language use within the next few months, its hopes that Slovakia will be lifted into the first group of EU candidates at the Helsinki summit in late 1999 may fade away.Despite the fact that the controversial law was expected to be approved in February, in-fighting in the ruling government coalition has prevented agreement on the law's final draft. The latest cabinet schedule sets July 9 as the date on which the draft should be approved, perhaps in a shortened legislative procedure, but recent problems have dimmed the likelihood of even that plan.

Slovak Jan-May budget deficit 8.66 billion Sk

Crown surges on news of economic package, presidential election

Standard & Poor's to rate upcoming Slovak Eurobond

OSCE gets a new Secretary General: Ján Kubiš of Slovakia