Today the European Commission (EC) published its convergence report where
it states that Slovakia meets all Maastricht criteria and, therefore, can
adopt the euro on 1 January 2009. The report provides a clear
recommendation for the European parliament and the council. Thus, following
the formal approvement by these institutions to enlarge the Eurozone,
Slovakia will become the 16th member state to adopt the euro.
Already on Monday, the local press leaked an unofficial version of the
report and local banks started to push koruna to the stronger side. Shortly
after the official announcement of the report at noon today the koruna held
near all-time strong levels slightly above the EUR/SKK 32.0 threshold, and
we would expect it to remain at these strong levels in the upcoming days.
The only real question that remains is the level of the final conversion
rate. We continue to expect a second revaluation of the parity to a level
around EUR/SKK 32.50. Based on the recent gains the rate can be a bit
stronger even. Once the decision on the euro introduction will be formally
approved, the National Bank of Slovakia will decrease its 2-week key rate
from currently 4.25% to the then ECB level and the time of independent
monetary policy will be over.
Quelle: Tatra banka a.s., Bratislava - RZB, Vienna
Letzte Änderung: 07.05.2008 durch Jacqueline Lehmberg
