NBS: Analysts expect that Slovak economy has grown by 4% in 1Q10

Slovakia's economy has increased 4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest macroeconomic predictions drawn up by selected commercial banks and released by Slovakia's central bank (NBS) on March 25. As regards to the whole year of 2010, the analysts foresee 2.6-percent growth, with their expectations remaining unchanged compared to those in February. They have also made their first predictions concerning 2011, for which they expect 3.7-percent growth, the TASR newswire wrote.

In their latest prognoses, the analysts slightly changed their expectations, in relation to, rising prices. They expect that the EU-harmonized inflation rate to stand at 1.6 percent in 2010, up from the
1.5-percent prediction made last month. A slight change was also observed in forecasts concerning the 2010 inflation rate measured according to national methodology - up from the 2 percent expected in February to 2.1 percent in March. Both the Finance Ministry and NBS foresee better prospects for the Slovak economy following last year's contraction of 4.7 percent. The ministry expects the economy to grow by 2.8 percent this year, while NBS was even more optimistic, in its latest prognosis, estimating growth at 3.1 percent. By and large, the performance of Slovakia's economy in the final quarter of 2009 was better than expected. As previously mentioned, the economy reported a slump of 4.7 percent for the full 2009 year, which is actually slightly better than both NBS and the Finance Ministry were forecasting - the bank in December expected a contraction of 4.9 percent year-on-year, while the ministry predicted that the economy would shrink by 4.8 percent.