sk sk
  • Information for Public

Situation Report on the Monetary Development of Slovakia in December 2008 - Summary

27 Jan 2009

1. Consumer prices, measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP), decreased by 0.1% in December, as compared with the previous month. The year-on-year growth rate of headline inflation was 3.5%. The core inflation (excl. energy and unprocessed foodstuff prices) reached a year-on-year growth rate 3.8%.

2. Consumer prices measured by the CPI decreased by 0.2% in December, when compared with the previous month. The year-on-year rate of headline inflation was 4.4% and that of core inflation 3.3%.

3. Monetary aggregate M3 (in accordance with the ECB methodology) increased by SKK 11.8 billion on a month-on-month basis in November. while its year-on-year growth rate increased to 6.1% in comparison with the October figure.

4. The total volume of claims of monetary financial institutions (MFI) vis-à-vis residents (incl. securities issued by customers and held by the MFI sector, according to the ECB methodology) recorded a month-on-month increase by SKK 19.9 billion in November, while its year-on-year growth rate was unchanged in comparison with the previous month (13.6%).

5. The average lending rate on new loans to non-financial corporations decreased by 0.51 of a percentage point to 5.24% in November, and that on new loans to households increased by 0.61 of a percentage point to 12.89%. The average lending rate on new loans to non-financial corporations decreased by 0.47 of a percentage point to 1.71% for the same period, and that on new loans to households remained unchanged at 1.38%.

6. The central government budget deficit was SKK 21.2 billion as at the end of December.

7. Foreign exchange reserves of the NBS (at the current exchange rate) reached the amount of USD 18.8 billion in December. Their amount at the end of the month represented the equivalent of 2.7 times the average monthly imports of goods and services to Slovakia for the first eleven months in 2008. The coverage of the average monthly imports of goods and services (payments for imports of goods and services acquired from banking statistics data) by the official foreign exchange reserves represented the equivalent of 3.5 times the average monthly imports of goods and services to Slovakia for the first eleven months in 2008.

8. In December, Narodna banka Slovenska did not make any foreign exchange intervention.

9. According to the preliminary data, the balance of payments current account for November 2008 ended in a deficit of SKK 18.0 billion and the balance of payments current account for January to November ended in a deficit of SKK 114.5 billion and the trade balance deficit was SKK 12.0 billion.

10. The total sterilization position of the NBS in December, in comparison with November, decreased by SKK 2.9 billion to SKK 383.9 billion.

Jana Kováčová
Spokesperson of the NBS

National Bank of Slovakia
Communications Section
Imricha Karvasa 1, 813 25 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Tel.: +421-2-5787 2168,+421-2-5865 2168, +421-2-5787 2169, 421-2-5865 2169
Internet: http://www.nbs.sk

Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged.