Slovakia has been listed among the ten European Union member countries which managed to increase the level of their economies in 2012, according to data recently released by the Eurostat statistics office. The data reveals that Slovakia's GDP per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) reached 75 percent of the EU27 average, up 1.3 percentage points from 2011.
Economists state that Slovakia is therefore successfully catching up with western-European economies. The country's central bank (NBS) explains that this is due to the accelerated growth in nominal product as well as the drop in Slovakia's relative price levels when compared with other member states. "The comparison with other countries in Europe shows that Slovakia has done a great deal of work. Our economy achieved average growth in real GDP equal to 4.1 percent between 1995 and 2012," analysts from Tatra Banka told the TASR newswire.
The analysts at the same time warned that the country is close to a level that is not sustainable in the long run. Shortly before the outset of the economic crisis in 2008, Greece seemed to be catching up with the most-developed countries, but its economy then started to gradually fall back.
Slovakia is also one of the most open economies in the world, according to the latest survey carried out by the International Chamber of Commerce, which shows that the country placed 14th out of 75 countries. The areas with the best evaluation are the openness of trade, the trade policy, and support for foreign investors, the Hospodárske noviny daily wrote. Based on the survey, Slovakia’s openness is comparable to countries like Norway, Denmark and Austria. The list is topped by Hong Kong, Singapore and Luxembourg, while Bangladesh, Sudan and Ethiopia reported the worst results.
(Source: TASR, Hospodárske noviny)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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