Bratislava - Slovakia's jobless rate dropped to 10,1 per cent in the second quarter from 10.5 per cent recorded in the first three months of 2008, according to government data released Wednesday.

Unemployment has been falling as foreign investors, mostly carmakers, set up plants, causing Slovakia's cheap labour to gradually gain in cost.

The average monthly wage grew 9.5 per cent in the second quarter to 21,459 Slovak koruny (1,024 dollars), a hike undercut by inflation to a real 4.8 per cent, the The Slovak Statistics Office said.

The statisticians also confirmed that the Slovak economy slowed to 7.6 per cent in the second quarter, the weakest growth since late 2005.

Prague - Czechs and Slovaks on Thursday commemorated 40 years since Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring communist reform movement, which threatened Moscow's Cold War grip on eastern Europe.

Warsaw Pact troops invaded what was then Czechoslavkia in the early hours of August 21, 1968, taking control of the country and arresting the reformist leaders. Western nations denounced the crackdown but made no military move to stop it.

In the run-up to the emotional anniversary, Czech leaders and European commentators have drawn comparisons between 1968 and Russia's invasion of Georgia. So did US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bratislava - Slovakia's central bank Tuesday left its key interest rate on hold for 15th consecutive month, staying in line with eurozone borrowing costs ahead of switching to the euro in January.

The decision kept the two-week repo rate at 4.25 per cent, the central bank said. The European Central Bank, seeking to ward off inflation, raised its key rate for the 15 nations using the euro to the same level on July 3.

Slovakia has one of the European Union's fastest-growing economies. But inflation is running ahead of the eurozone average and some economists have called for higher rates to curb rising prices.

The former Soviet-bloc nation will come under the ECB's monetary policy when it switches to the euro on January 1, 2009.

Bratislava  - Slovakia's annual inflation rate remained steady in June at 4.6 per cent, a 20-month peak recorded in May, according to the data released by Slovak statisticians Thursday.