Slovakia

VUB Bank – a member of Gruppo Banca Intesa – through its subsidiary VUB Factoring, has been providing its clients with various factoring products for more than 10 years.

A new analysis by Ernst & Young showed that Slovakia's taxes for companies are among the lowest in the V4 states, which also include Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary.

The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) has staged a surprise 25 basis point rate cut after announcing that high headline inflation was the chief obstacle to a rate cut last month.

Grants are a direct aid for future drawing of funds from EU Structural Funds. The Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank (SGDB) has introduced another form of drawing from these funds – indirect aid.

The Slovak Police unit for investigating extra-serious crimes is reported to have detected several crimes linked to the Vseobecna uverova banka (VUB) bank, which are said to have taken place in 1996, 1997 and 2000.

State-run EXIM Bank plans to support exports worth 60.5 billion Slovak Crowns (SKK) in 2004, which makes up 7.5 percent of Slovakia's total expected exports for next year. This is SKK 9.5 billion higher than the expectations for this year.

From January 2004 the corporate tax will decrease to 19%. Currently, employees and self-employed pay progressive taxes between 10% and 38%, while companies are taxed 25%.

OB Heller Factoring of the financial group CSOB achieved a turnover of Skk3,917 billion for the first nine months of this year.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will invest between Ђ120m and Ђ150m (SKK 4.97bn - SKK 6.21bn) in Slovakia in 2004, with support to focus on medium-sized businesses in the coming years, said EBRD president Jean Lemierre.

Inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Slovakia experienced a massive increase recently and the position of Slovakia is improving in comparison with other countries of Visegrad Four (V4).