BRATISLAVA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Slovak economy grew by a
real 9.4 percent, year-on-year, in the second quarter, the
Statistics Office said on...
...Tuesday, revising upwards its flash
estimate of a 9.2 percent rise.
*****************************************************************KEY POINTS
SLOVAK REAL GDP Q2/07 Q1/07 Q2/06 FY/06
(pct change yr/yr) +9.4 +9.0 +6.7 +8.3
(Full GDP table................................[ID:nPRG000482])
- The second quarter GDP figure is slightly above the Statistics
Office's flash estimate of 9.2 percent reported in August.
- The Statistics Office says it sees full 2007 GDP growth at 8.8
percent year-on-year.
- End-2007 headline CPI is seen at 2.3 percent year-on-year.
- Household consumption remains strong at 7.3 percent growth,
year-on-year, while government consumption edges up 1.1
quarter-on-quarter.
- Inventories show a large change, totalling 13.382 billion
crowns, compared with a change of 3.079 billion crowns in the
first quarter of 2007.
ANALYST COMMENTS:
JURAJ VALACHY, ANALYST, TATRA BANKA, BRATISLAVA
"Household consumption is very strong. This would halt any
discussions about an interest rate reduction even if we did not
go to the euro zone.
"Overall growth is very balanced and did not show any reason
for changes in interest rate settings. We will wait for the ECB
(European Central Bank), and if the ECB goes above 4.25 percent
the central bank (NBS) will go up (tighten policy) as well."
BACKGROUND
- The Slovak economy has been showing the highest growth rates
among the four largest new EU members from central Europe over
the past few years.
- GDP growth has been helped by reviving domestic demand as
households consumption rises after years of belt-tightening
reforms.
- Investments have also increased in the past year, mainly
thanks to large project such as car factories of French PSA
Peugeot and South Korean Kia Motors .
- The central bank does not consider fast GDP rise as major
danger to inflation as economic growth appears to be driven by
rising productivity and exports.
LINKS:
- For further details on past data, Reuters 3000 Xtra users can
click on the Slovak Statistics Office's website:
http://wwww.statistics.sk/webdata/english/index2_a.htm
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