Throughout the years of the pandemic and Ukraine crisis Slovakia has experienced one of the worst declines in living standards in the EU, but from a long-term standpoint the country is slowly catching up to the EU average, Marek Maline, an analyst from investment platform Portu, has stated. A good indicator of economic progress is gross domestic product. "From the 53.7 percent levels [of the EU average] recorded in 2015, we reached 55.8 percent in 2021, and we weren't overtaken by countries such as Romania or Hungary," claimed Malina. According to him, while the speed of progress is slower than before the 2008 crisis, purchasing power shows a drastic contrast. Malina stated the need for changes and reforms in the Slovak economy. He also pointed to incorrect interpretation of progress data published by Eurostat. His opinion is supported by analysts from Slovakia's central bank, who claim that the published data indicate lower living standards than is actually the case. "The reason for this misinterpretation are changes carried out by the Statistics Office in 2019, when it raised price levels, but only for the years following 2016 ... In reality, prices didn't increase that quickly, but were higher the whole time," said the analyst. He claims that instead of the 67 percent of average living standards shown in the research, Slovakia in reality has reached 80 percent of the EU level.
Source: TASR
