Slovaks are slightly more optimistic than the citizens of other European countries when it comes to the future of their economy.
Three quarters of Europe’s population considers their country to be in recession. Zuzana Letková, a partner of Deloitte, which has prepared an international consumer study "How A Country's Economy will Influence Pre-Christmas Consumer Spending," said that only one in five Slovaks said that the economy was experiencing a decline at present.
Approximately forty-three percent of Slovaks, in comparison to fifty-two percent of Czechs, expect their economy to worsen in 2009. "They expect their purchasing power to lessen or remain the same as last year, and so far they feel little direct impact from the financial crisis, which was only beginning at the start of the Deloitte study," she said.
Letková added that thirty-two percent of Slovaks planned to increase their Christmas spending. By contrast, she said that 54 percent stated in the survey that they planned to cut their Christmas spending due to the rise in food and drink prices.
Deloitte’s survey polled 609 people in Slovakia. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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