Slovak economy maintains stable growth

At the beginning of the year, the Slovak economy maintained a relatively stable growth of around 3%, according to the Statistics Office's flash estimate. In the first quarter at constant prices Slovakia's GDP increased by 0.8% compared to the previous quarter, with the dynamics of its year-on-year growth slightly increasing from 3.0% to 3.1%. "The performance of the Slovak economy at the beginning of the year did not bring a major surprise; the economy benefited from the continuing recovery of both external and domestic consumer demand," said Ľubomír Koršňák, an analyst with UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia. Employment has recorded the slowest growth since the end of 2015. "This is particularly due to structural labour market problems when supply and demand are not met, which could confirm the growing number of job vacancies. However, slower employment growth translated into accelerated labour productivity growth, which improved year-on-year by 1.0% in constant prices and up to 2.0% at current prices. However, wage pressures not only in Slovakia, but practically throughout the region, create a shortage of qualified skilled labour," concluded Koršňák.