Slovakia ranked best among the Visegrad Four countries in the ratio of public debt to GDP in 2008, according to data released by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), the TASR newswire wrote.
Slovakia's debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 28.8 percent in 2008, while the ratio for the Czech Republic, for example, was 29.4 percent. Although Slovakia's public-finance debt rose in nominal terms, the debt-to-GDP ratio went down because of rapid economic growth in 2007 and 2008, TASR wrote.
According to WIIW analyst Zdenek Lukas, the Slovak government could have done more to consolidate public finances in the previous two years.
“Compared to other EU-member countries, Slovakia cut its public-finance deficit sufficiently. But if we take into consideration the extraordinarily rapid growth of GDP in the last few years, the cut in the deficit could have been bigger," said Lukas, as quoted by TASR. 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.
