The growth of the Slovak economy should be fuelled by increased salaries as well as strong domestic demand, however, Slovakia will have to work on structural reforms, said the Vice Governor of the Slovak National Bank, Ján Tóth, for Tablet TV on Sunday. He pointed to the fact that in the pre-crisis times, salaries in Slovakia grew twice as fast as in Germany. On the other hand, after the crisis, incomes did not grow this fast compared to the developed world. Tóth underlined the fact that the development of the Slovak economy in the recent five years has also been influenced by a non-inflation period. "It led to a significant growth in the Slovak population's purchasing power without significant increases in salaries, when inflation did not decrease the purchasing power," said Tóth. According to him, Slovakia thus experienced a relatively fast growth in purchasing power even at times when the economy did not grow quickly. As a result, many new jobs were created in the field of services, causing the unemployment rates to fall significantly, hitting historical minimums. Thus, pensioners, students, as well as women on maternity leave and foreigners found jobs, Tóth explained.
On the other hand, Tóth said that the closure of the gap between Slovakia and developed countries has slowed down, which points to the need for reforms. Moreover, he also cited research indicating the decreased quality of the entrepreneurial environment. "In the past, Slovakia was first or second among the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), now it is in third place," said Tóth.
