HIGHLIGHTS-Central bankers, Almunia at Bratislava conference

BRATISLAVA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Following are highlights of comments by European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico and Finance Minister Jan Pociatek and ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny at a conference to mark Slovakia's planned entry to the euro zone in January 2009.

For a text of Trichet's speech, go to here

* NOWOTNY

GROWTH:

"For the year 2009, all of Europe will suffer lower growth."

"There is no doubt that these huge and dramatic events in the financial sector will have an effect not only in the United States but also in Europe."

MARKETS:

"Just now we see that in a situation of big turmoil in the financial world, the euro area has managed to be a source of stability."

INFLATION:

"What we see now is that the rate of inflation has peaked probably in the August of this year.

"As a member of the ECB I have to stress it is going down but it is above the goal of the European Central Bank."

* TRICHET ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND U.S. RESCUE PLAN:

"I would say that, as you could see, central banks are acting and ... appropriate decisions were taken in the supply of liquidity in our various currencies in order to be up to the exceptional period that we have. We have care, particularly in the ECB, for our money markets to be functioning with rates, as close as possible ... to our policy rates.

"Policy rates themselves are designed to deliver price stability over the medium term.

"We have also engaged at the global level in intimate cooperation which had no precedents, so with this intimate cooperation to supply liquidity in dollars .... we have engaged in a clear demonstration of intimate cooperation in the present circumstances.

"We remain alert and everyone can see the central banks are alert."

* ALMUNIA

U.S. PLAN:

"The initiatives announced during the weekend by Secretary Paulson are welcome. I think we'll appreciate the positive impact of the announcement in the markets. The markets have reacted positively.

"We now have to wait to know some details, but I look forward for this initiative to increase confidence in the markets and to solve some of the problems that were behind the extreme volatility and nervousness in the markets last week.

"I cannot speak on behalf of some European governments. It's up to them to consider whether they can follow this initiative.

"I don't think the situation is the same, but in any case, it's up to the national governments to adopt their own decisions."

OIL PRICES:

"Regarding the oil markets, volatility is of course very high. When oil prices were going down, we welcomed this evolution, but at the same time, if the situation will continue to be very volatile, as President Trichet said, we will be alert."

BANKS:

"The amount of recapitalisation of banks during the financial turmoil is up to $350 billion so far, and according to the president of the financial stability forum last week, it is still an amount that should be complemented in the future.

"I think nobody can have the precise figure of what is still ahead, but this process of recapitalisation should continue during the next period, given that some more losses and writedowns will be disclosed."

GLOBAL ECONOMY:

"The world now faces the prospect of a global economic downturn and inevitably, these shocks are taking their toll on the euro area economy too.

"We are going through testing times. Europe has been hit by a series of global shocks. An international financial crisis continues to rock credit markets." * TRICHET

EURO BENEFITS:

"Slovakia will benefit from the stability-oriented policy of the ECB, which will help to anchor inflation expectations. Furthermore, euro adoption may help to shield Slovakia, a small and highly open economy, against the effects of international financial turbulence, which often has disproportionate effects on smaller economies."

SLOVAK INFLATION WORRY:

"Our main concern is that Slovakia, being a catching-up economy is likely to face inflationary pressures that could derail the economy from a sustainable convergence path after euro adoption."

"Top priority must therefore be given to the sustainable economic convergence... It will require major efforts in the years to come from all parties concerned."

SLOVAK BUDGET DEFIT:

"The fiscal adjustment in structural terms must be at least 0.5 percent of GDP per year until the medium term objective is reached in 2010."

SLOVAK LABOUR MARKET

"Secondly, the functioning of Slovakia's labour market must be further improved and the high structural unemployment reduced.

"Any temptation to introduce wage indexation schemes should be resisted; social partners should focus on labour productivity growth and competitiveness as the main factors in any wage adjustments." * FICO

FISCAL CONSOLIDATION

"Last year, Slovakia had the historically lowest fiscal deficit of 2.2 percent of gross domestic product. Next year, we will operate with the historically lowest deficit of 1.7 percent, which will consist mostly of the deficit of the pension system.

"The government will maintain a cautious fiscal policy. That is something we have already got used to.

"Apart from the pension system, there should be no major problem with the fiscal deficit.

"We will continue with an economic policy that is both supporting strong economic growth, but also supporting social policy goals. These two goals are equally important."

ON MAASTRICHT CRITERIA

"We have repeatedly said the Maastricht criteria are tough, even unfair. It is virtually impossible to combine economic growth of 9-10 percent with the meeting of the inflation criteria.

"We have managed to fulfil the conditions, thanks to tough measures, but it may complicate the entry process for some other countries."

* POCIATEK:

"In 2011, Slovakia should for the first time reach a balanced public sector budget, including the capital pillar of the pension system.

"I am convinced the euro will help us overcome the current situation on the global financial markets."

(Reporting by Marc Jones, Peter Laca, Michael Winfrey and Jan Lopatka, writing by Krista Hughes; editing by David Stamp)