Macroeconomic Forecast Slovakia

Slovakia's gross external debt continued to rise in October 2009 according to recent data released by the Central Bank of the Slovak Republic. Indeed, the debt pile increased to US$69.6bn in December, up from US$68.3bn in November. The increase came about as a result of increasing government debt as well as a rise in inter-company lending. Meanwhile the banking sector paid off approximately US$0.13bn worth of debt. We hold to our estimate that external debt equalled US$68.1bn as of end-2009, equalling 74.6% of GDP. Going forward, we believe the debt pile will continue to increase, rising to US$73.8bn by end-2010, 76.2% of forecast GDP.

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