Slovakia, the fourth-largest country set to join the European Union in May, aims to adopt the euro by 2009 to boost the economy and cut companies' costs

Slovakia, the fourth-largest country set to join the European Union in May, aims to adopt the euro by 2009 to boost the economy and cut companies' costs, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos and a central bank official said in interviews. Adopting the euro ``will simplify the decision-making of the corporate sector as the elimination of conversion costs will result in huge savings,'' Miklos said in Bratislava. Switching to the common currency will also raise economic growth by 1 percentage point, said central bank Vice Governor Elena Kohutikova in an interview. Gross domestic product expanded 4.1 percent in the first quarter and may rise 4 percent this year, accelerating to 4.8 percent in 2006, the government has said. Removing the cost of buying and selling koruna will make it cheaper for companies to transport cars and other goods to and from the EU, Slovakia's largest trading partner. Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker and Slovakia's biggest exporter, and Continental AG, the world's fourth-biggest tiremaker, opened plants in the East to cut labor and operating costs and will benefit from early euro adoption, Kohutikova said. Slovakian companies such as Novacke Chemicke Zavody AS, Slovakia's fourth-biggest chemical company, will also benefit as exchange rate costs disappear. Novacke Chemicke now loses around 26 million koruna ($700,000) a year in conversion costs.