Electricity prices for Slovak households will grow by 7% from January 2007 but Slovenske Elektrarne, the largest Slovak electricity producer, has promised only 6% growth for households, giving in to demands from the new government. Slovenske Elektrarne may raise prices by up to a fifth next year due to growing demand for electricity and the closure of some power plants.
The Turkish central bank said its foreign exchange reserves increased by $223 million to $57.6 billion in the week ending August 11. Foreign exchange reserves reached a record high of $60.4 billion on April 14. Foreign exchange reserves have increased by $7.1 billion since the end of 2005.
Surplus liquidity in India’s banks fell by 300 billion rupees in August, from $500 billion. The sharp drop was mostly due to increased government borrowing and less spending. The government borrowed 125 billion rupees in the first week of August. Surplus liquidity is estimated based on the size of funds that banks lend to the reserve bank everyday to reverse report transactions.
Taiwan 's local bank profits declined by over 50% during the first half of the year. The banking sector's profitability has been hit due by the increase in defaults on consumer loans; especially credit card and cash card defaults. Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission reported that Taiwanese banks' pre-tax income declined 57% to 36 billion Taiwan dollars during the period. The banking sector's average return on equity has declined to 2.1% from 4.8%.