Political war erupts over National Bank Vice-governor
The National Bank is threatened that Slovakia's path to the Euro may be led without a Vice-governor for monetary policy. President Ivan Gašparovič has refused to appoint the Government's candidate for this post, Ministry of Finance State Secretary Vladimír Tvaroška. The official reason -- a lack of experience in financial management.
The Ministry does not agree with this and is planning to take the issue to the Constitutional Court, with a proposal for the submission of a complaint approved by the Government on Wednesday.
If the Court begins to consider the case, the National Bank could be without this important Vice-governor for some time. "Such cases take on average 15 months," pointed out Constitutional Court spokesman Štefan Németh. However, the Court may issue a temporary measure which would allow the Government to authorize the nomination of another candidate.
Since by then the Government will not exist in its present make-up and the new Government's nominee need not be Tvaroška, who was proposed for the position by the Minister of Finance, Ivan Mikloš.
Politologue Miroslav Kusý sees the President's stand as a political gesture. According to him, Gašparovič prefers to wait and "appoint another candidate after the elections." According to HN information, the whole affair has been raised by the opposition and in particular MP Maroš Kondrót from Smer. "Yes, I have such information that he was acting against Mr. Tvaroška," confirmed his party colleague Igor Šulaj, seen as a candidate for the post of Minister of Finance. The Ministry still considers Tvaroška as a good candidate with experience in management; Ivan Mikloš even declared that the president is on the side of the opposition. May 6 - May 9
Ford may be our next automobile maker
The American car company whose move into one of the countries of Central and East Europe has been bruited by the largest real estate company in the world, CB Richard Ellis, seems to be the Ford Motor Company. From the trio of Detroit motoring giants, only Ford already has a plant in western Europe and a strong motivation to transfer manufacturing to cheaper countries.
According to the Executive Director of the real estate company Patrick Morrissey, the decision is between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. It wishes to shift its production capacity from the already existing factory to one of these countries, Morrissey was quoted as saying by the weekly Trend.
Tom Malcolm, spokesman at Ford's European headquarters, refused to comment on the speculation about moving the plant. According to HN information coming out of the Ford North America environment, the carmaker is thinking seriously about moving production out of Germany, and one of the candidates for the building of a new plant is Slovakia. May 7
Railway to add dance car
The Slovak Railway Company, Železničná spoločnosť has ordered the reconstruction of nine passenger sleeping cars from the ŽOS Vrútky firm. The makeover will consist of the alteration of the buffet and berth parts into seven air-conditioned restaurant wagons and two social -- dancing and conference - cars. This will involve changing the entire interior, including floors, walls and windows, along with a modernization of the undercarriage and braking system. The contract was signed in mid-May at an agreed price of SKK 213,4 million without VAT. May 6
Bernanke´s Fed sent stock down
Last week saw exceptional stock market volatility throughout the world's exchanges. Traders are still worried by the uncertainty surrounding the Fed's next move on interest rates, and meanwhile doubt is growing as to the effect of this series of rates hikes on braking the economy. Monday was a holiday in the United States, and on Tuesday it seemed there were no buyers at the market, with sharp selling-off recorded. Funds readjusted their portfolios in reaction to May's price falls, which were the steepest in the last two years. On European exchanges trading did not begin in a positive light, mostly witnessing selling trends. Only at the end of the week traders, after thorough analysis, were buying up fundamentally undervalued shares, which reflects the low growth expectations for the world economy.
The net loss of the Vodafone company in the last fiscal year amounted to a level of 21,9 billion GBP, the greatest loss in the history of European companies. However, firm management at the same time announced that it is planning to pay shareholders a substantial part of the cash created over the financial year -- approximately 9 billion GBP. Traders reacted to the news in surprisingly positive way, and Vodafone shares rose by almost 7,5 percent over the week. May 2 -- May 8