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According to Czech National Bank governor this month’s data from economy are slightly inflation supportive and there is an increasing probability of interest rates hike. Tuma did not want to predetermine timing of such changes.
• Management and trade unions of Skoda Auto came to an agreement on wages. These should increase by 12.7% by 2008 so the risk of another strike has disappeared.
• CNB decreased proportion of American dollar in foreign exchange reserves to 34.6% from 47.2% at the end of 2005. On the other hand, proportion of Japanese yen and British pound increased.
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According to April survey of CVVM agency, parliamentary elections would won ODS with 24.5% of votes followed by CSSD with 20.5%, KSCM would gain 9.5%, Green Party 7.5% and KDU-CSL 5.5%. Compared with March, ODS, CSSD and GP gained while KDU-CSL and Communists lost part of their votes.
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According to National Bank of Slovakia representative, it is highly probable that Slovakia will fulfil inflation criteria for
euro adoption. At the moment, inflation is not showing any inflation pressures.
• Hungarian Deputy Minister of Finance stated that inflation, according to his estimate, is going to decrease to 4.5% by December 2007 and GDP growth will probably remain over 2.2% this year. Public finance deficit for 2006 reached, according to preliminary estimates, around 9.2% of GDP.