Europe's economy is, according to a majority (61 percent) of Slovaks, in bad shape, and up to 79 percent say that Slovakia's economy is in even worse shape, according to a Eurobarometer survey carried out June 13-30 among a sample of 1,065 respondents that was released on September 21 in Bratislava, the TASR newswire wrote.
Similar results were recorded with respect to employment, with 88 percent indicating that things are bad in Slovakia, and over half expecting things to get worse. Ivan Kuhn from the M.R. Štefánik Conservative Institute, which co-operated in carrying out the Eurobarometer National Report, said that “as far as their personal situations are concerned, most Slovaks are confident and don't expect any changes in their jobs.”
The survey also listed what Slovaks see as the biggest problems: unemployment (60 percent of respondents), the economy (52 percent) and inflation (21 percent).
But Andrea Elscheková-Matisová, the head representative of the EU Representation Office in Slovakia, said that people rank problems in their personal lives in a different order. “From the perspective of personal experience, people negatively perceive inflation (41 percent of respondents), the economy (33 percent) and health care (19 percent). Unemployment didn't make it into the top three problems faced by citizens on a personal level,” explained Elschekova-Matisova for TASR, adding that unemployment was in fourth at 17 percent. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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