BRATISLAVA, November 14, (WEBNOVINY) — In the next ten to twenty years Slovakia will be confronted by major structural challenges. That is what the governor of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) Josef Makuch believes, referring to Slovak economy’s strong dependence on the automotive industry. While industrial production is currently achieving double-digit growth, without automakers would at best stagnate. Therefore, the NBS governor says we must prepare that automotive industry will not be the driving force of our economy indefinitely.
„The Slovak economy has to be prepared for the fact that from the long-term perspective this effect is temporary,“ Makuch said at Wednesday’s seminar of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The said the automotive industry Slovakia is currently benefiting from good structure of production when it is producing small cars selling well even in times of crisis. However, the question remains whether the automotive industry in ten to twenty years will continue to focus on Slovakia or move to other countries.
The central bank estimates for this year GDP growth in Slovakia of 2.7 percent. This year’s growth is mainly driven by the automotive industry that started several new projects. Next year, he expects growth to slow down to 2 percent and in 2014 a slight recovery to 3 percent. However, Governor Makuch notes that the current forecasts may not translate into reality. It will also depend on whether it will be necessary to adopt new consolidation measures, which would again reduce domestic demand. „The optimism stems from what we do not know,“ he says.
According to the State Secretary of the Finance Ministry Vazil Hudak, any additional consolidation measures would not be of significant nature. In his view, responsible fiscal policy is documented by the view of investors on Slovakia’s debt when the country last sold Eurobonds in international markets as historically low interest rates. „Also the external environment perceives us as a country that has a very responsible fiscal policy,“ said Hudak.
SITA