Bratislava - Slovakia, which adopts the euro on January 1, slashed its borrowing costs Tuesday to match the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest cut, the country's central bank said.

The Slovak National Bank slashed the key two-week repo rate by three quarters of a percentage point to 2.5 per cent in line with the ECB's dramatic cut on December 4.

Slovakia's benchmark rate has stood at 4.25 per cent since April 2007 until October this year when the country began matching the ECB's cuts aimed at boosting the eurozone's sliding economy.

Slovakia, the 16th country to join the eurozone, is the second former communist nation after Slovenia to adopt the common European currency.

The countries using the euro give up their own monetary policy in favour of the Frankfurt-based ECB, which sets borrowing costs for the bloc. (dpa)