ds on the horizon: GDP growth is
slowing sharply; budget and current account deficits are too large;
external debt is growing uncomfortably fast; unemployment is high
and rising; corrupt insider deals persist; and demand is weakening
for Slovakia's key primary goods exports, especially as Russia and
Ukraine slump and as EU growth slows. International credit rating
agencies have downgraded Slovak debt to below investment grade. The
new government intends to address the economy's ills by giving
priority to joining the OECD and EU, cutting government wage and
infrastructure spending, boosting some taxes and regulated prices,
expanding privatization to companies formerly considered strategic,
restructuring the financial section, encouraging foreign investment,
and reenergizing the social partnership with labor and employers.
Government officials believe as long as two years may be needed
before its structural reforms improve economic performance. In 1999,
the government expects GDP growth to slow from 5% in 1998 to 2%,
inflation to rise from 6% to 10%, and unemployment to rise from less
than 14% to 15% or 16%, but hopes to bring the budget deficit down
to no more than 2% of GDP and the current account deficit down to 5%
to 6% of GDP.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$44.5 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 5% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$8,300 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 4.8%
industry: 33.4%
services: 61.8% (1997)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 5.1%
highest 10%: 18.2% (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 7.4% (1998)

Labor force: 3.32 million (1997)

Labor force--by occupation: industry 29.3%, agriculture 8.9%,
construction 8%, transport and communication 8.2%, services 45.6%
(1994)

Unemployment rate: 14% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $5.4 billion
expenditures: $6.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1997)

Industries: metal and metal products; food and beverages;
electricity, gas, coke, oil, and nuclear fuel; chemicals and manmade
fibers; machinery; paper and printing; earthenware and ceramics;
transport vehicles; textiles; electrical and optical apparatus;
rubber products

Industrial production growth rate: 2.7% (1997)

Electricity--production: 25.81 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--p