Slovakia’s Statistics Office says the global financial crisis is not yet having a significant impact on the growth of the economy, the SITA newswire reported.
Despite a gradual slowdown in GDP growth to 7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, the crisis has not been greatly reflected in GDP growth.
"The third quarter seems not to have been significantly affected by the financial crisis," said the head of the Statistics Office's macroeconomic section František Bernadič. It is very difficult to predict the development of the Slovak economy for the end of this year and next year. Domestic demand will play a significant role in the future, given the falling foreign demand for Slovak products, caused in part by the financial crisis.
Development in the automotive industry and electrical engineering industry will also be important. Growth has slowed gradually: in the first quarter year-on-year GDP growth was 9.3 percent, in the second quarter it fell to 7.9 percent, and the Slovak economy grew at 7 percent in the third quarter. Despite this, the chairwoman of Slovakia's Statistics Office, Ľudmila Benkovičová, said that the economy had maintained its positive development parameters.
She pointed out that Slovakia's GDP growth is above average in comparison with other EU member states. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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