Gross domestic product (GDP) of the Slovak Republic in real terms was SKK 278.4 billion in the final quarter of 2002, up 5.4 percent in fixed prices when compared with the same period of the previous year. The economic growth in current prices stood at 9.9 percent y/y, according to preliminary figures of the Slovak Statistics Office. Thus the economic growth in the final quarter of 2002 exceeded estimations of analysts, predicting a slowdown in the economic growth to between 3.7 – 4.2 percent.

Over the whole year 2002, GDP creation in Slovakia accounted for SKK 1,073.6 billion, up 4.4 percent in real terms and by 8.5 percent in current prices. This has been the highest year-on-year increase since 1998. The GDP growth rate accelerated by 1.1 percentage point from the 2001. Analysts predicted the economic growth to between 4.0 – 4.1 percent for the whole year 2002. Private sector created 88.9 percent of the total GDP volume in 2002, up 5.2 percentage points y/y.

From the viewpoint of consumption, the Q4 economic growth resulted from a 12.4-percent increase in foreign demand and an 8-percent increase in domestic demand. Out of main items of the domestic demand, the final consumption of households climbed 5.3 percent and the final consumption of the public administration rose 1.2 percent. The creation of gross capital was 20.9 percent above the Q4 2001 level while the creation of gross fixed capital shrank by 1.5 percent.

From the viewpoint of GDP creation, the increase in the GDP over the final quarter of 2002 resulted from an increase in added value in the sector of other services by 14.2 percent, in agriculture by 12.9 percent, in construction by 8.3 percent and in industry by 5.3 percent. It was lower than in Q4 2001 in postal services and telecommunications (5.7 percent), transport (3.3 percent) and trade, hotels and restaurants (1.3 percent).