High-risk scenarios predict Slovak economy shrinking by more than 10%

The Slovak economy might shrink this year by even more than ten percent. This stems from two risk scenarios that the Finance Ministry unveiled on Wednesday alongside a basis economic prognosis in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic. In the first risk scenario, the pandemic would last three months, resulting in the GDP falling to -12.5 percent and the economy recovering to its 2019 levels only in late 2021/early 2022. According to the prognosis drafted by the Financial Policy Institute, the second scenario predicts the pandemic lasting only two months, but the economic revival being slower than in the original estimates, with the economy due to being 2.5 percent below the 2019 levels even as late as in 2023. "The Slovak economy is a small and open economy, dependent on the development of large world economies. Of course, these have been affected to a large extent by the new coronavirus and, therefore, the Slovak economy will be affected as well," stated on Wednesday the Finance Minister Eduard Heger, adding that closed stores amount only to the loss of 2 percent of GDP. The Finance Ministry will also set an 'economic crisis management team' at Slovakia's Government Office. This should feature figures from economic Cabinet ministries and prominent analysts.