Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman compared Jásir Arafat to Adolf Hitler in a dialogue with Israel's' daily Ha'aretz and proposed an evacuation of Palestinians from Israel as Czechs did with Sudeten Germans after World War II. Foreign ministers of EU countries agreed that Zeman's comments, printed in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, are unacceptable.
Czech Finance Minister Jiri Rusnok wants to reconcile with Nomura of Japan, which is suing the Czech state for violation of its investment in the collapsed IPB bank at an international arbitration court. Rusnok added that the risk of defeat in the arbitrage is quite high.
Hungarian central bank cut its rates again. The key interest rate as well as the two-week deposit rate dropped by 50 bps to 8.5%. So far, Hungarian central bank diminished its rates by 1.25% this year.
OPEC will likely not change its oil production quotas this year, said Ubajd Saíf Nasirí, oil industry minister in Saudi Arabia. OPEC cut its daily production by 2bn barrels since the beginning of this year. Most of the cartel members, however, do not respect given quotas.
U.S. President George Bush confused FX markets yesterday and caused a temporary depreciation of Japan's yen. He mistook deflation for devaluation in a dialogue with Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Fortunately, traders quickly realized his mistake and the market calmed down.
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