BRATISLAVA, May 31, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak economy developed more positively in the first quarter than the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) expected. The central bank also registered a more positive development on the labor market. “GDP growth rate as well as labor market’s recovery surpassed NBS’s expectations for the January-March period,“ concluded central bank’s Bank Council on Tuesday after discussing a report on economic development so far in 2011.
According to a flash estimate of the Statistics Office, gross domestic product grew by 3.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, which is the same rate as in the last three months of last year. Quarter-on-quarter, however, the country’s economy in the first quarter rose by 1 percent according to seasonally adjusted data, while in the fourth quarter of last year it was by 0.9 percent.
The central bank has updated its GDP growth estimate for this year from the December’s 3 percent to 3.3 percent in its current medium-term prediction. The bank projects next year’s economic growth at 4.5 percent compared with its prediction at the close of last year assuming GDP to rise 4 percent in 2012. Economic growth should accelerate up to 5.2 percent in 2013.
SITA
