* The 2001 state budget, approved by the government October 9, is cosidered acceptable by most economists, in spite of the fact that it will incur debts as high as 37.8 billion Slovak crowns, almost 4 per cent of the GDP. The budget hovers a little too close to the 4-per-cent GDP rate, warned the chief analyst of the Slovak Savings Bank Martin Barto. However, it is drawn up to be anti-inflationary, which enables interest rates to fall. Analyst at the Czechoslovak Trade Bank (CSOB) Ludovit Odor said the state will not press the financial market and the central bank will continue loosening its monetary policy. The opposition declared it will not support this budget despite the praise from experts.
* Chairman of the Czech Parliament Vaclav Klaus met his counterpart Jozef Migas, Slovak Premier Mikulaç Dzurinda and Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan during his official visit to Slovakia October 9-11. Klaus restated his opinion that the V4 group (the Visegrad countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) is artificial, false, unnecessary and without a real core. That did not prevent him and Dzurinda from affirming that the relationship between Slovakia and the Czech Republic is special, Klaus called it friendly and problem-free.
* The first town in the world to have a statue of the famous good Czech soldier Schweik (Svejk) is Humenne, in Eastern Slovakia. The piece, by local sculptor Jan Drotar, was unveiled October 6 during Schweik Days, with many Czech and Polish Schweikologists and the grandson of Schweik creator Jaroslav Hasek taking part. Close to the site is a well from which Lieutenant Dub drank the filthy and foul water during his trip to the Eastern front. A trail named Following the Footsteps of the Good Soldier Schweik was opened, too.