(source: TASR )
The favourable pro-growth sentiment among foreign investors in Slovakia persists. Almost half of them plan to expand and look for new employees while the biggest obstacles hampering their businesses in Slovakia remain the shortage of qualified labour and corruption. But they warn of Slovakia’s worsening image due to political turmoil caused by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová.
“In spite of the political crisis, foreign investors consider the business outlook to be mostly positive,” said Jürgen Knie, president of the Slovak-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, when introducing results of the regular business survey conducted by several chambers of commerce on March 26. “In the positive assessment of the current economic situation, we recorded a 10-year high in this survey.”
The Slovak-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Advantage Austria Bratislava, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia and the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia conducted the regular business survey at the end of February and beginning of March, during the exact time the political turmoil caused by the double murder loomed over the nation. The survey polled 131 companies operating in Slovakia.
The survey shows that 63 percent of respondents evaluate the current economic situation in Slovakia positively, which is 18 percentage points more than a year ago and 41 percent of companies believe it will further improve. Only 3 percent of respondents rate it negatively.
Moreover, over 40 percent of 131 participating companies would like to expand their activities and look for new employees in Slovakia. Survey results also show that nearly 45 percent of companies count on better deals this year, 47 percent want to hire more staff, and 41 percent plan to boost their investments. Only 8 percent of companies are preparing for a worse economic year.
