Czechs to mint more crowns due euro slippage

...of crown coins, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the central European country decided to set no target date for ditching the national currency for the euro, rejecting the finance ministry's idea to pledge to work towards gaining entry to Europe's single currency zone in 2012.

Wide fiscal deficits, bottlenecks in the inflexible labour market, and unfinished pension reforms have finally forced government and central bank policymakers to abandon their goal of adopting the euro in 2009-2010.

"The original plan was to adopt the euro in 2010 and we had guided our coin production towards that date," said central bank spokesman Pavel Zubek.

The slippage in the euro schedule made the bank change tack.

"However, the delay is not the only reason for raising the production of coins, it is simply necessary to mint more to boost money in circulation," said Zubek.

The central bank will produce millions of coins in various denominations next year.

- For an overview of Czech crown coins, double click on:

http://www.cnb.cz/en/banknotes_coins/coins/

(Reporting by Marek Petrus; editing by Tony Austin)

Keywords: CZECH COINS/

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]