Slovakia launches 332-million-euro crisis plan
(BRATISLAVA) - The Slovak government on Wednesday launched a 332-million-euro (437-million-dollar) plan to support employment and boost domestic demand to fight the global economic crisis.
"We want to support employment and help employers directly," Prime Minister Robert Fico told journalists, adding that the package will be financed with public spending cuts but will not affect welfare programmes.
The economic crisis committee, set up last week with government, central bank, commercial banks, trade unions, employers, municipalities and the opposition, will meet on Thursday to discuss concrete measures.
The leftist prime minister said ahead of the meeting that some changes might be made to the Labour Code after an agreement with trade unions, reducing protection of employees in order to help employers.
The economy ministry said earlier this month that more than 15,000 jobs are threatened in Slovakia due to the economic crisis.
The unemployment rate rose sharply in December to 8.39 percent from 7.8 percent in November, official data showed.
The European Commission said last week it expected the Slovak economy to grow by 2.7 percent this year and by 3.1 percent in 2010 after strong growth for 2008 estimated at 7.1 percent.
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