The second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic is having a milder impact on the Slovak economy as compared to the first wave, but it's lasting longer. Analysts at the Financial Policy Institute (IFP) estimate that the impact of the extended lockdown from the end of December 2020 to the end of February 2021 would amount to about 1.1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for 2019.
The lockdown will cut €800 million from the total output of the economy, to which, according to the analysts, the impact of €230 million from the last 11 days of the previous year must be added.
The analysts estimate that the unemployment rate will not increase significantly. "We expect that in the last quarter of 2020, the decline in employment will reach 2.2 percent as compared to the previous year," said IFP. For the whole of last year, employment should therefore fall by 1.9 percent.
