THE MASSIVE 9.8 percent GDP growth in Slovakia in the third quarter of 2006 as reported by the national Statistical Office was beyond all the expectations of analysts.
Slovakia’s first and second quarter real GDP growth came in at a robust 6.7 percent each but the 9.8 percent growth in third quarter came as a major surprise, even to the most optimistic economists.
Vladimír Vaňo, an analyst with Trend Analyses, told SITA that the launch of production in several plants built by large investors was behind the massive economic growth.
The Statistical Office itself stated that the high GDP growth dynamics were driven by the growth in added value in Slovak industry.
Unlike in the 1990s, however, there are for the moment no fears of the economy overheating.
Vaňo says that Slovakia is now harvesting the fruits of eight years of the pro-reform government that made the local business environment attractive to foreign investors.
VÚB bank analyst Martin Lenko thinks that the latest GDP figures unambiguously confirm Slovakia's role as a Central European leader with a dynamically growing economy whose expansion can be compared with such booming economies as the Chinese or those of the Baltic states.
