(Repeats story published late on Thursday)
* Economic contraction possible
* Less bleak view than central bank
* Slovaks not seen as EU's troublemakers
By Peter Laca
BRATISLAVA, April 16 (Reuters) - The Slovak Finance Ministry
has a more upbeat view of the economy than the central bank but
cannot rule out a contraction in gross domestic product this
year, Deputy Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said on Thursday.
Kazimir told Reuters in an interview first quarter data had
signalled a sharp fall in demand, and the next update of the
ministry's forecasts would likely show a downward revision if
such a trend continued.
The finance ministry's latest forecast from February sees
real economic growth of 2.4 percent this year.
The ministry will prepare an update of its forecasts after
the assessment of actual first-quarter numbers, Kazimir said,
and it is expected to publish it in late May or early June.
Kazimir said the forecast could predict an economic
contraction this year, but added the ministry was not as
pessimistic as the central bank, which earlier this month
predicted the economy to shrink by 2.4 percent.
"Our concern is that we might need to acknowledge a scenario
of economic contraction," Kazimir said.
"We do not see developments as black as the national bank,
but what we see is that the real economic slowdown could cause
negative GDP growth this year," he added.
Slovakia, a euro zone member since January, has been hit by
the global economic crisis as demand for its exports, mainly
cars and TV sets, fades in western Europe.
The government of Prime Minister Robert Fico is trying to
juggle slowing budget revenues and the promise to keep expanded
welfare programmes intact.
Despite cooling economic activity, the government wants to
keep the public finance deficit within the limit of 3 percent of
gross domestic product set in the European Union's Stability and
Growth pact.
"We will make every effort until the last moment to keep
fulfilling the deficit criterion," Kazimir said. "However, a
rapid slowdown of economic growth, or negative growth, could
complicate achievability of that goal."
Bratislava is not holding specific talks with the European
Commission about its fiscal deficit, but it believes the EU's
executive arm sees trends in Slovakia as "relatively positive"
compared with some other countries which expect bigger gaps.
"We have a feeling that Slovakia is not the troublemaker in
the euro zone, or in the European Union, in terms of fiscal
discipline and in terms of refinancing," Kazimir said.
(For story on debt refinancing, click on [])
(Editing by Andy Bruce)
