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Pociatek: 2009 Slump Better Than Projected
Friday 12 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February (TASR) - Slovakia's economic slump of 4.7 percent in 2009 wasn't as bad as expected, Finance Minister Jan Pociatek said on Friday in response to the Statistics Office's flash estimate released on the same day.
The Finance Ministry had until recently forecast that the economy would shrink by close to 6 percent. Its updated prognosis published earlier this week projected 4.9 percent.
According to Pociatek, these developments are an answer to criticism that the Government's measures are ineffective and that the Cabinet has mismanaged the economic crisis. "On the contrary, this is clear evidence that Slovakia is getting out of the crisis," he said.
This year the ministry expects to see a pick-up in the Slovak economy, projecting it to grow by 2.8 percent year-on-year. Pociatek is confident that this prognosis is realistic. "I believe that the prognosis we published will be very close to reality. I even think that growth may be yet higher than we are projecting at the moment," he said, predicting that Slovakia will be among the countries with highest economic growth in the European Union.
Pociatek said that his ministry has a clear idea of how to meet consolidation goals in the area of public finances, and even conceded potential for a faster-than-planned reduction in the public-finance deficit. Last year the gap stood at 6.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and it should fall to 5.5 percent this year, 4.2 percent next year and below the 3 percent ceiling set by European budgetary rules in 2012.
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