Finance Minister calls for savings

There are mainly external factors behind the deceleration of Slovakia's GDP growth in the second quarter of this year, such as the slowdown in Germany and trade wars between China and the USA , Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenický (Smer-SD) said in reaction to the GDP figures released by the Statistics Office. "According to the latest results, GDP growth slowed down much more than we expected, to the level of 1.9 percent, instead of the estimated 3.5 percent. However, this year's general government budget has been drafted on the GDP growth assumption of 4.5 percent. The deceleration was expected with regard to external factors, but not that soon and not to that extent," he said, calling on ministers to start saving together. As for other steps to be taken in the upcoming period, Kamenický said he would wait for the figures from the September prognosis. "It's obvious that if this sudden change in GDP growth continues, it will mean a reduction in budgeted incomes and we'll have to react to that by cutting expenditures," stated Kamenický.