Illustrative stock photo (source: AP/TASR)
People from Slovakia, particularly those living near the borders, have been used to shopping abroad. They travelled mostly to Austria seeking higher quality food, and Poland, where they could find cheaper goods.
However, the coronavirus crisis has stopped this trend, as the recent analysis of Poštová Banka suggests. The volume of card transactions carried out by their clients abroad dropped more than 90 percent in spring.
Closed borders impacted shopping
People from Slovakia shopped and spent the highest amounts last year in Hungary, then the Czech Republic and Austria. They spent the least in Poland. During the coronavirus crisis, the situation changed a bit though as people spent the most in the Czech Republic, followed by Austria. Hungary dropped to third place.
