NBS Prognosis: Slovak economy to shrink by 10.3 percent

The Slovak economy should contract by 10.3 percent this year, according to the latest medium-term prognosis released by Slovakia's central bank (NBS) on Wednesday. NBS thereby worsened its GDP development estimate from the previous quarter by 1 percentage point. The central bank expects an economic recovery to come next year, with GDP going up by 8.4 percent. In 2022, GDP should grow by 4.5 percent. Meanwhile, the Statistical Office released preliminary data showing that Slovakia's foreign trade fell sharply in April after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Total exports of goods slumped by 43% y-o-y to 3.749 billion euro, and total imports of goods by 36.6% to 4.241 billion euros. The foreign trade gap thus widened to 492.1 million euros in April, up 388.2 million euros y-o-y. Cumulatively since the beginning of the year, total exports of goods from Slovakia have fallen by 16% to 22.919 billion euro and total imports by 11.2% to 23.695 billion euro. The trade balance deficit for the first four months of the year reached 776.3 million euro. By contrast, last year, after the first four months, Slovakia's foreign trade had a surplus of 581.8 million euro.