Slovakia must carry out further structural reforms and introduce stricter fiscal discipline if it wants to adopt the Euro on January 1, 2009, an evaluation of the country's convergence plan published by the European Commission (EC) on January 30 states.
Although inflation fell significantly last year, increases are expected due to developments in the prices of foodstuffs and energy, strong economic growth, lower flexibility on the labour market, and the weakening effect of national currency appreciation, said the EC.
"In order to meet inflation targets stated in the program, which presupposes that Euro adoption will take place in 2009, and in order to handle possible inflationary pressures, more structural reforms are needed," reads the assessment. "The Government also needs to be ready to introduce stricter fiscal discipline than the plan envisages," it adds. TASR
p>Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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