BRATISLAVA, June 12, (WEBNOVINY) — The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) has revised upward its prognosis of Slovakia’s economic growth for this year. According to its latest prediction published on Tuesday, this year’s GDP should grow 2.5 percent while the March estimate of the central bank was 2.1 percent. Its latest prediction for next year is 3.1 percent. The central bank, however, prognosticated the same growth for 2013 also in March. In 2014, the central bank expects 4.3-percent growth, which is a moderate increase of the March prognosis by 0.1 percentage points.
NBS Governor Jozef Makuch explained that behind the reassessment of this year’s prediction is more favorable development of the economy and employment in Slovakia over the first quarter of this year. However, the consolidation of public finances that was not included in the growth calculation might change the final figures. Makuch elaborated that when the central bank was working on the prognosis, concrete measures were not known yet and figured into the calculations. This fact along with the possible worsening of the impact of the debt crisis represent the biggest risk of a slower-than-predicted economic growth. “However, it is possible to estimate, based on preliminary information that measures will be adopted rather on the revenue side and will be of such character that they should not have a more remarkably negative impact on GDP in the short term. However, the impact on sustainability of public finances and economic growth in a longer-term horizon might be questionable,“ said the central bank governor.
SITA