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NBS: Analysts Expect That Slovak Economy Has Grown by 4% in 1Q10
Thursday 25 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 25 (TASR) - Slovakia's economy has grown by 4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest macroeconomic predictions drawn up by selected commercial banks and released by Slovakia's central bank (NBS) on Thursday.
As regards the whole of 2010, the analysts foresee 2.6-percent growth, with their expectations remaining unchanged compared to those in February. They have also now made their first predictions concerning 2011, for which they expect 3.7-percent growth.
In their latest prognoses, the analysts slightly changed their expectations vis-a-vis price rises. They expect the EU-harmonised inflation rate to stand at 1.6 percent in 2010, up from the 1.5-percent prediction made last month.
A slight change was also observed in forecasts concerning the 2010 inflation rate measured according to national methodology - up from the 2 percent expected in February to 2.1 percent in March.
Both the Finance Ministry and NBS foresee better prospects for the Slovak economy following last year's contraction of 4.7 percent. The ministry expects the economy to grow by 2.8 percent this year, while NBS was even more optimistic in its latest prognosis, estimating growth at 3.1 percent. A new updated forecast is set to be released by NBS later in March.
According to Slovakia's stats office, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.7 percent year-on-year in 4Q09. This figure represents a quarterly improvement of 2 percent, however.
By and large, the performance of Slovakia's economy in the final quarter of 2009 was better than expected.
As previously mentioned, the economy reported a slump of 4.7 percent for the whole of 2009, which is actually slightly better than both NBS and the Finance Ministry were forecasting - the bank in December expected a contraction of 4.9 percent year-on-year, while the ministry predicted that the economy would shrink by 4.8 percent.
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