home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
CNN Newsroom: Global View
/
CNN Newsroom: Global View.iso
/
eur
/
slk
/
slk.ec1
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-06-28
|
4KB
|
94 lines
<text>
<title>Slovakia: Economy</title>
<article><hdr>The World Factbook 1993: Slovakia
Economy</hdr><body>
<p>Overview: The dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two
independent states - the Czech Republic and Slovakia - on 1
January 1993 has complicated the task of moving toward a more
open and decentralized economy. The old Czechoslovakia, even
though highly industrialized by East European standards, suffered
from an aging capital plant, lagging technology, and a
deficiency in energy and many raw materials. In January 1991,
approximately one year after the end of communist control of
Eastern Europe, the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic launched a
sweeping program to convert its almost entirely state-owned and
controlled economy to a market system. In 1991-92 these measures
resulted in privatization of some medium- and small-scale
economic activity and the setting of more than 90% of prices by
the market - but at a cost in inflation, unemployment, and lower
output. For Czechoslovakia as a whole inflation in 1991 was
roughly 50% and output fell 15%. In 1992 in Slovakia, inflation
slowed to an estimated 8.7% and the estimated fall in GDP was a
more moderate 7%. In 1993 the government anticipates up to a 7%
drop in GDP, with the disruptions from the separation from the
Czech lands probably accounting for half the decline; inflation,
according to government projections, may rise to 15-20% and
unemployment may reach 12-15%. The Slovak government is moving
ahead less enthusiastically than the Czech government in the
further dismantling of the old centrally controlled economic
system. Although the governments of Slovakia and the Czech
Republic had envisaged retaining the koruna as a common currency
at least in the short run, the two countries ended the currency
union in February 1993.
</p>
<p>National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $32.1
billion (1992 est.)
</p>
<p>National product real growth rate: -7% (1992 est.)
</p>
<p>National product per capita: $6,100 (1992 est.)
</p>
<p>Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8.7% (1992 est.)
</p>
<p>Unemployment rate: 11.3% (1992 est.)
</p>
<p>Budget: revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital
expenditures of $NA
</p>
<list>
<l>Exports: $3.6 billion (f.o.b., 1992)</l>
<l> commodities: machinery and transport equipment; chemicals;
fuels, minerals, and metals; agricultural products</l>
<l> partners: Czech Republic, CIS republics, Germany, Poland,
Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, US, UK</l>
<l>Imports: $3.6 billion (f.o.b., 1992)</l>
<l> commodities: machinery and transport equipment; fuels and
lubricants; manufactured goods; raw materials; chemicals;
agricultural products</l>
<l> partners: Czech Republic, CIS republics, Germany, Austria,
Poland, Switzerland, Hungary, UK, Italy</l>
</list>
<p>External debt: $1.9 billion hard currency indebtedness
(December 1992)
</p>
<p>Industrial production: growth rate NA%
</p>
<p>Electricity: 6,800,000 kW capacity; 24,000 million kWh
produced, 4,550 kWh per capita (1992)
</p>
<p>Industries: brown coal mining, chemicals, metal-working,
consumer appliances, fertilizer, plastics, armaments
</p>
<p>Agriculture: largely self-sufficient in food production;
diversified crop and livestock production, including grains,
potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit, hogs, cattle, and poultry;
exporter of forest products
</p>
<p>Illicit drugs: the former Czechoslavakia was a transshipment
point for Southwest Asian heroin and was emerging as a
transshipment point for Latin American cocaine (1992)
</p>
<p>Economic aid: the former Czechoslovakia was a donor - $4.2
billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed
countries (1954-89)
</p>
<p>Currency: 1 koruna (Kc)=100 haleru
</p>
<p>Exchange rates: koruny (Kcs) per US$1 - 28.59 (December 1992),
28.26 (1992), 29.53 (1991), 17.95 (1990), 15.05 (1989), 14.36
(1988)
</p>
<p>Fiscal year: calendar year
</p></body></article></text>