Slovak economy grew by 3.4 percent

Slovakia's economy grew by 3.4% at the beginning of the year, slightly faster than indicated by the first estimates published in mid-May (3.3%), according to the Slovak Statistics Office. Domestic consumption has again been the engine of the economic growth. "It seems that at the beginning of the year, Slovak exporters struggled to increase their market shares in foreign markets. A slowdown in foreign trade turnover, however, affected some other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It could thus be triggered by a particularly surprising slowdown in export performance of the German economy, Slovakia's main economic partner, in some of its key sectors. Machinery, electronics, chemicals and cars exports from Germany posted weaker figures. Nevertheless, Germany still has strong domestic demand and relatively stable growth", said UniCredit Bank's analyst Ľubomír Koršňák. Slovakia's economic growth is comfortably at a level which naturally generates new jobs. "The share of workers in the economically active population has risen to a new post-crisis maximum of 89.3%", said VUB Bank's economist Andrej Arady.