The coronavirus outbreak might have an impact on the Slovak economy, which is closely tied to developments in Germany. The possible impact may already be reflected in statistics for the first quarter, economic analysts predict.
“Due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus on the global economy, we have postponed the improved outlook and keep the GDP growth estimates at 2 percent,” said Slovenská Sporiteľňa analyst Katarína Muchová, as cited by the TASR newswire. She added that the impacts of the coronavirus on the Slovak economy are likely to be around 0.2-0.3 percentage points.
Any precise estimates on the illness pose a big challenge at this early stage since it is not clear how individual countries will address the problem and how long its effects will last. If severe measures are introduced, concomitant with higher rates of uncertainty that might influence the behaviour of people, the negative effect could reach 0.7 percent.
