The Slovak economy grew by 2.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, the Slovak Statistics Office announced in a flash estimate on Tuesday, August 14. Meanwhile, the quarter-to-quarter rise, after seasonal effects are removed from the equation, stood at 0.7 percent.
In current prices, the Slovak economy in the given period created GDP amounting to €17.825 billion, which represents an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011. More details on the figures will be available on September 6.
The performance of Slovakia's economy in the second quarter of this year matched analysts' expectations, slowing down from 3 percent in the first quarter of the year to 2.7 percent, the TASR newswire learnt. "GDP growth was fuelled mainly by robust industrial production, which, thanks to the output of car plants, continued to grow by double digits in the second quarter," said Slovenská Sporiteľňa bank analyst Martin Baláž.
"Based on monthly data, we assume that the structure of growth hasn't altered substantially from previous quarters. It's expected that GDP will have continued to be propelled mainly by foreign demand, most notably increasing car exports. On the other hand, domestic demand probably continued to exert a downward influence on GDP growth in the second quarter," said UniCredit bank analyst Ľubomír Koršňák. The analysts were mainly relying on preliminary or partial monthly data.
According to Poštová Banka analyst Eva Sadovská, despite the slowest rate of growth since late 2009, developments in the Slovak economy were a pleasant surprise. "It [the economy] grew a little more than expected," said Sadovská as quoted by TASR. As regards the latter half of 2012, a continued slowdown in growth to around 2 percent is expected, mainly due to deteriorations in the external economic environment, said the analysts.
(Source: 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.
