On 1 January 2009 the euro will become legal tender in Slovakia. Great efforts have already been made, and even greater ones will be made, to ensure that the people of Slovakia are well-informed about euro coins and euro banknotes, and in particular their security features.
Some of the recent softening in housing starts may have resulted from the unusually favorable weather during the first quarter of the year, which pulled forward construction activity, but the slowing of the housing market appears to be more broad-based than can be explained by that factor alone.