Slovakia's GDP for the first quarter of 2009 slumped by 11.4 percent in comparison with the preceding quarter, according to the revised estimates published on July 8 by the European statistics office Eurostat.
Based on this figure, the Slovak economy's fall was the steepest among all members of the European Union. Bank analysts say that the cause of the large GDP decline in Slovakia is the recessions in euro zone countries which are impeding foreign demand for goods produced in Slovakia, the TASR newswire reported.
The recession in Germany's economy has the most significant impact on the Slovak economy, as Germany is the main trading partner of Slovakia.
“That's why the economy will probably lose most of the 6.4 percent real growth of GDP from 2008,” Slovenská Sporiteľňa bank’s team of analysts told TASR.
"A more detailed structure of the real drop in GDP definitively confirms that small and open economies cannot “separate foreign and domestic demand from each other,” Volksbank’s chief analyst, Vladimír Vaňo, told TASR. He said that besides weakened demand, Slovakia was hit by the natural gas crisis in January which forced most of the largest Slovak industrial firms to suspend production. TASR
Compiled by Michaela Stanková from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
