BRATISLAVA, March 15, (WEBNOVINY) — The business environment in Slovakia slightly worsened in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly because of deterioration in the price stability, according to a regular survey among business entities carried out by the Slovak Business Alliance (PAS). The current value of the Business Environment Index (IPP) shrank 0.4 points to 91.5 points q/q.
The price stability indicator shrank the most compared with the last quarter of 2010 among all monitored areas, namely by 5.7 percent to 85.7 points. “Businessmen are concerned about price increase resulting from gradual recovery after the crisis as well as their hike caused by increase in VAT and excise taxes on energy carriers,“ concluded the alliance.
Criticism of businessmen also stems from a relatively small change in VAT by only one percentage point, which brought more bureaucracy. Substantial growth in the crude oil price on world markets has also contributed to the unfavorable situation, especially for transporters.
Businessmen considered the legislation regulating payroll taxes to be the second most negative item with a 4.9-percent drop. “Businessmen contest extension in the calculation base without compensation in form of lower rates. They point out that final increase in payroll taxes represents a slight threat for employment and might slow down development of companies or inflow of foreign investments,“ reads the PAS survey. Businessmen still find the payroll tax system very non-transparent with a lot of anomalies.
Items “law enforcement and functionality of jurisdiction” continued its downward trend. PAS opines that businessmen expect noticeable changes leading to increase in quality and transparency of jurisdiction, which, they say, have not been anywhere in sight yet.
On the contrary, the surveyed businessmen assigned the biggest increase to items “government’s economic policy” and “information accessibility”. They welcome announced austerity measures as well as compulsory publication of contracts with participation of the state. “Obligation to publish contracts with state’s participation is a big step forward,“ reads the report. Businessmen improved their evaluation of access to financial sources and quality and accessibility of production sources and workforce.
The base period for calculation of the Business Environment Index was July 1, 2001 with the index reference level of 100 points. Respondents assessed changes in the business environment for the first quarter of 2001 for the first time. PAS currently publishes the 37th value of the index, which reflects its changes in the third quarter of 2010. Businesses associated in the alliance report annual sales of about EUR 16.9 billion and employ about 64,000 people.
SITA
