The government approved a draft amendment on August 20 to the Pricing Law that allows for the regulation of prices, as a last resort, in cases where unjustified growth upon switchover to the euro is identified, the TASR newswire wrote.
Finance Minister Ján Počiatek, whose ministry drafted the measure, says he hopes he will never be forced to make use of this provision.
"This is truly an option of last resort, which has to be preceded by many other moves. I am confident that the market arrangements will be enough to ensure that prices develop in a normal fashion," he said.
Objections to the bill, which is meant to be fast-tracked in parliament, were raised by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), which even proposed taking it off the agenda for the government meeting.
"We have carried out analyses that clearly point out that there should not arise a situation relating to the adoption of the euro that would cause a dramatic change in prices. With respect to that, we do not consider it necessary to adopt such a law," NBS governor Ivan Šramko said. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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