Slovakia's GDP growth will accelerate to 4.2 percent this year, driven mainly by household consumption, export and private investment, according to the latest macroeconomic prognosis published by the Finance Ministry's Financial Policy Institute (IFP) on Monday. Its analysts expect investment to speed up, reaching 4.5 percent next year, primarily thanks to an investment by the Jaguar Land Rover car maker and the launch of the construction of the Bratislava bypass. Meanwhile, public spending will rise only slowly, thus dampening the economy's overheating. Household consumption will keep its stable growth rate of above 3 percent, while investment will decelerate due to the completion of major automotive investments.
The Finance Ministry expects the labour market to keep growing significantly this year with employment going up 1.7 percent. The economy will see almost 40,000 new jobs with the services sector making up more than half of them. The number of Slovaks working abroad should decline, while the number of foreign workers on the Slovak labour market will grow. According to the Finance Minister Peter Kažimír (Smer-SD) some foreign investors are beginning to realise that Slovakia is no longer a country with cheap labour. The average monthly nominal salary in the Slovak economy will grow at its fastest rate since the beginning of the economic crisis to exceed €1,000 this year.
