IN ITS current macroeconomic prognosis, the Slovak Finance Ministry’s Institute for Financial Policy (IFP) predicts that in spite of a slowdown in economic growth due to the global financial crisis, Slovakia’s GDP will grow at the highest rate in the European Union. The institute explains that one of the reasons for this is that the financial crisis will hit other countries harder than Slovakia, the SITA newswire wrote.
According to the Finance Ministry's estimates, the Slovak economy should grow by 4.6 percent next year. In later years, GDP growth should accelerate again. In 2010, it predicts, GDP growth should be 5.3 percent, and 6.1 percent in 2011, as a result of a revival in the global economy.
The initial slowdown in GDP growth will be due to slower growth in countries where Slovakia's main trading partners. This will result in lower demand for Slovak exports and secondary effects such as lower employment, consumption and investment growth, said the IFP.
The ministry's inflation estimates remain unchanged.
