January 23, 2024 TUESDAY #7209
POLITICS and 1-, 3- and 5-year rates now start at 4.05%.
EU Czech EU Commissioner Věra Jourová
warned that Slovakia could face financial
sanctions from the EU if the Fico government
pushes through changes seen as a threat to
the rule of law. Fico wants to cut penalties for
corruption and economic crimes, abolish the
Office of the Special Prosecutor and weaken
whistleblower protection. These changes have
also been criticized by the European Parlia-
ment, saying they threaten the integrity of ju-
dicial processes and undermine the EU's fight
against fraud. (barrons.com)
Government Multiple allied intelligence ser-
vices had stopped sharing sensitive infor-
mation on the war in Ukraine and matters
concerning Russia and China with Slovakia af-
ter the Robert Fico government took over, in-
vestigative center ICJK and Vsquare reported.
They are uneasy about Fico’s pro-Russian sen-
timent. If corrupt ex-Police Chief Tibor Gašpar
becomes the head of the intelligence service
SIS, Slovakia could find itself even more isolat-
ed. Slovakia will only be able to exchange in-
formation with other similarly compromised
intelligence services. (vsquare.org)
Ukraine Compromise with Russia is out of
the question, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs
Ministry responded to Robert Fico's remarks
that Ukraine should cede territory in exchange
for peace. It added that Ukraine was trying to
push the Russians out of Crimea so that they
would not move on to Košice. (hnonline.sk)
ECONOMY
Procurement The Investment Ministry is
working on a revision to the Public Procure-
ment Act that should free the hands of
mayors and speed up the spending of EU
funds, said Minister Richard Raši. He plans to
send the revision to a standard comment pro-
cedure soon and wants it to be in line with EU
norms. He was responding to the opposition
PS party, according to which the revision will
bring radical changes that will create room for
cronyism, corruption, and non-transparency. It
will, for example, increase the limits for ten-
ders where no appeal is possible and radically
reduce fines for breaking the law. (trend.sk)
Rail Austria’s Porr submitted the lowest bid
of €11m in the tender for the reconstruction
of 4.5 km of the rail line between Bratislava
and the border with Austria. Železnice SR ex-
pected a €12.8m price. This is part of a project
that should cut travel time between Bratislava
and Vienna to 40 minutes. (hnonline.sk)
EU Funds Slovakia spent €3.5bn of EU funds
last year, the most in its history, the Finance
Ministry reported. In the final sprint to spend
the 2007-13 EU funds, Slovakia spent €3.1bn
in 2015. So far, 90.4% of the 2014-20 EU
funds, €13.1bn, has arrived in Slovakia, with
further payments still under review. (trend.sk)
Mortgages Following 1.5 years of rising
mortgage rates, the first bank has cut them.
365.bank pushed them down by 0.2 of a point
Published by Symsite Research since 1994 www.symsite.sk
Crowdberry and SIH together provided the
They only apply if clients have a net salary company with €6m. (trend.sk)
above €1,500 sent to the bank. A new bank
tax will hamper further cuts in mortgage rates. eCommerce One of the biggest Czech online
(sme.sk) stores kosik.cz (Daniel Křetínský and Patrik
Tkáč) is coming to Slovakia and is already hir-
Wages Finance dominates the top earnings ing. It offers home delivery of groceries and
category, with 10% of the top male earners in plans to cover Bratislava, Nitra, Žilina, Zvolen
the sector earning at least €4,736, according and Košice at first. (hnonline.sk)
to ŠÚ data. ŠÚ published a breakdown of wag-
es by industry, education, and region. Gross Healthcare Medline, a US medical supply
wages by region for 2022: firm, plans to build a second plant in the
median TOP10% Partizánske industrial park. The first €24m
plant with 550 employees opened there in
Bratislava €1,497 €3,118
Trnava €1,215 €2,131 early 2022; before that, Medline has been
producing in Bánovce nad Bebravou for seven
Trenčín €1,190 €2,107
years. The second plant is to employ a further
Žilina €1,190 €2,097 580 people. In 2022, the company reported
B, Bystrica €1,153 €2,004 €43m sales in Slovakia.
Košice €1,188 €2,281 Another medical supply firm Unomedical,
Prešov €1,058 €1,828 part of UK Contatec, employs 900 in
(trend.sk) Michalovce. (dennikN.sk)
Budget If the government does not consoli- Machinery Heating and air-conditioning
date public finances, its default risk will start company Protherm Production, part of Vail-
to rise after 2025, the fiscal responsibility lant Group, has opened a new €2m logistics
council RRZ warns. After 2030, the state center in its plant in Skalica. (pravda.sk) The
would already be at serious risk of default. plant employs 1,000 and reported a net profit
The first budget of the current government of €28m on €433.1m sales in 2022.
does not consolidate at all, as it has a higher
deficit than last year. RRZ notes that govern- Biotech Evonik Fermas launched production
ments have become accustomed to being able in a new €100m facility for sustainable biosur-
to grow out of debt thanks to rapid GDP factants at its site in Slovenská Ľupča.
growth, but this will gradually cease to be the (chemengonline.com) In 2022, the plant em-
case due to an ageing population. (sita.sk) ployed 250 and had €38m sales.
Public debt in the EU fell to 82.6% of GDP in
the third quarter of 2023, from 84.6% a year Insurance Insurer Kooperativa lost a lawsuit
earlier, Eurostat reported. EU countries ran a against 14 clients who bought investment life
public finance deficit of 2.8% of GDP in 3Q, insurance 20 years ago. The court confirmed
down from 3.8% in the same period last year. that the insurer had lured them with false
Public finance balance and public debt as a promises of 18% state-guaranteed returns and
share of GDP in 3Q2023: failed to warn them of high fees. The insurer
balance debt must therefore pay compensation of tens of
Czechia -3.1% 44.5% thousands of euros as it knew about the
product's flaws. The insurer can appeal the
Poland -5.5% 48.7%
verdict.
Slovakia -7.0% 58.6% Kooperativa was recently fined €60,000 by
Hungary -5.7% 75.0%
the central bank NBS for failing to report sus-
Austria -3.9% 78.2% picious transactions and insufficient client ver-
(Eurostat, Eurostat) ification. (dennikN.sk)
CORPORATE NEWS Housing Patrik Tkáč from the J&T group is
preparing a project with 13 apartments and 13
IT Startup Better Stack (Juraj Masár and Ve- houses in Devín, which can be bought only
ronika Kolejáková) raised $10m from Kaya to
with DevX, a cryptocurrency. People can get it
support future growth. It had previously by shopping at the Tkáč grocery store in
raised $18.6m from Creandum, Kaya, Susa
Devín. DevX has increased in value by 800% in
Ventures, K5 Global, and Credo Ventures for two years. Tkáč's goal is to develop Devín.
its solution that facilitates collaboration be-
(startitup.sk)
tween software development teams. Its solu-
tion is used by 4,000 customers worldwide, Food Ingrid Parničanová is the new head of
including Time Magazine, Salesforce, Eset, Ac- the Slovak branch of food and medicine com-
centure, Decathlon, and Rakuten. (forbes.sk)
pany Podravka. Until now she has been a sales
director and after 20 years she replaced Miro-
eCommerce Crowdberry platform investors slav Rybár. (hnonline.sk)
exercised their option and increased their
stake in sportswear and nutrition supplement
Euribor and ECB exchange rates:
online store GymBeam to 16.73%. They
1M 3M 6M 1Y
bought a 4.57% stake from state-owned Slo-
vak Investment Holding and became the sole 3.854% 3.958% 3.908% 3.655%
investor in the company. The rest is still USD 1.0890 GBP 0.8558 CHF 0.9458
owned by founder Dalibor Cicman. In 2020, CZK 24.758 HUF 383.68 PLN 4.3640
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