Slovak industry hit by slowing German economy

by   CIJ iDesk I
2019-02-14   10:38
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The Slovak daily Pravda writes that the slowing German economy is having an impact on Slovakia's industrial output, but that the contry's new automobile plants are keeping hopes of continued GDP growth alive. The paper quotes Lubomir Košňák, an analyst at UniCredit Bank as saying that weakening economic statistics for Slovakia are no surprise, if taken from a European context. "But Slovak industry unlike most of the other European economies can still rely on a key sector – the automobile industry which thanks to new production capacity is protecting it from falling into the red from a year-on-year perspective."

He said that December's y-o-y growth figures were unbalanced and relied almost exclusively on the auto sector. Five other industrial sectors also recorded growth (groceries, wood products, refining, pharmaceuticals, rubber production, plastics and construction materials) but that it was too weak to have an impact on the overall results. He predicts continued weakening of European demand for everything but cars will further slow Slovak's industrial results in the coming months.