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Slovak Central Bank Expects 3.2-percent Economic Growth This Year
Tuesday 30 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 30 (TASR) - According to the current medium-term estimate of Slovakia's central bank (NBS), the Slovak economy will grow by 3.2 percent this year, said NBS governor Jozef Makuch on Tuesday.
NBS's previous estimate in December stated that the Slovak economy would grow by 3.1 percent after an almost 5-percent contraction in 2009.
The central bank seems to be more optimistic than the Finance Ministry, which is counting on a 2.8-percent improvement.
"There has been only a slight re-evaluation of economic growth under the influence of more beneficial developments in domestic, as well as foreign demand," said Makuch, adding that growth in all segments of GDP is expected. Negative developments on the labour market should continue, however, with the hope of some improvement at the end of the year.
According to NBS, consumer prices will be influenced by milder inflation at the beginning of 2010, which will lead to a slower growth in average prices (0.7 percent) than the one foreseen in December 2009 (1.2 percent).
Last-year's performance of the Slovak economy was significantly influenced by a decline in foreign demand under the influence of the global economic crisis. Resulting losses in state incomes caused a considerable increase in the public-finance deficit, which tripled year-on-year to reach 6.3 percent of GDP. The Government promised to cut the deficit to 5.5 percent this year, and said that it's willing to bring it under the 3-percent threshold set by EU budgetary rules by 2012.
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