The performance of Slovakia's economy in the final quarter of 2009 was significantly better than expected, Slovakia's central bank (NBS) commented to the TASR newswire on February 24.
“We expect economic activity to continue to recover in the months ahead,” reads the latest evaluation, which is part of a series of documents issued by NBS on a monthly basis.
According to NBS's recent quick estimate, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.7 percent year-on-year in 4Q09. This figure represents a quarterly improvement of 2 percent, however. For the whole of 2009, the Slovak economy reported a slump of 4.7 percent, 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.
Official prognoses state that the situation should turn around this year, with the economy growing. According to the Finance Ministry’s outlook for the economy, growth of 2.8 percent can be expected while NBS is even more optimistic, predicting growth of 3.1 percent. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
