THE NINE-MONTH taxed profit of the Slovak refinery Slovnaft shrank by 17 percent year-on-year to Sk6.1 billion (€185 million).
Net sales of the company, which is a member of the Hungarian MOL oil group, fell by 15 percent year-on-year to Sk81.4 billion, the Pravda daily wrote. Slovnaft said the main cause of the drop was the Slovak currency gaining ground on the euro and the US dollar.
"The increased sales of motor fuels and the higher quoted prices of petrol failed to compensate for the almost 17-percent appreciation of the Slovak currency towards the dollar compared with the first three quarters of 2006," the company wrote on its website.