OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Strengthening resilience and growth
Bratislava
18 March 2024
oe.cd/slovakia
@OECD @OECDeconomy
The economy has proven resilient
Source: OECD National Accounts database.
Inflation has fallen but remains elevated
Note: Harmonised CPI inflation for the Slovak Republic and euro area. OECD weighted average excluding Türkiye.
Source: OECD Price Statistics database.
Growth is set to pick up
Real GDP growth, % 2023 2024 2025 Harmonised consumer price inflation, % 2.6 2.1 1.1 2.7 3.4 11.0 General government debt, Maastricht definition (% of GDP) 61.4 59.3 57.0
114 database,
Source: OECD STEP EO
with updates.
Strengthening
public finances
Fiscal consolidation is needed to rebuild fiscal space
Note: 2023 data refer to OECD estimates.
Source: OECD Economic Outlook: Statistics and Projections database.
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Addressing ageing-related costs is key to ensure debt sustainability
Note: The “Without offsetting ageing-related costs” scenario is based on the OECD Economic Outlook 114 database with updates until 2025 and the OECD Long-Term Economic Model thereafter. Ageing-related costs are based on the EU Ageing Report 2021 and Ministry of Finance. The “Structural reforms and ambitious fiscal consolidation scenario” are based on the OECD Long-Term growth Model and reform scenario outlined in Box 1.1 of the Survey, which implies a 0.5 p.p. higher real GDP growth rate on average over the projection period compared to the “Without offsetting ageing-related costs” scenario. In addition, the scenario assumes an improvement of the primary balance by 1.1 p.p. of GDP per year between 2023 and 2028.
Source: OECD Long-term Economic Model; EU Ageing Report 2021; Ministry of Finance.
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Pension reforms can prolong working lives and improve pension sustainability
8
exit ages are averages of men and
at a
Note: Effective
women. Source: OECD Pension
Glance database.
Employment of women with young children needs to be strengthened through better incentives and opportunities
database, https://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm.
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Source: OECD Family
Greater use of EU funds can boost growth while allowing for ambitious fiscal consolidation
Note: EU structural funds include here the Cohesion Fund, European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund and Youth Employment Initiative. Absorption rate is the percentage of funds spent relative to the total planned amount (EU funding and national co-financing).
Source: Open Data Platform for the European Structural and Investment Funds.
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Sustaining productivity growth
12 Improving the quality of higher education would help to retain and attract high-skilled people Source: OECD (2023), Education at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63- en.
Increasing training and lifelong learning can foster job transitions and reduce skill imbalances
Source: OECD Labour Market Programmes database.
Targeted support for research and development can boost innovation, especially for small firms
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Source: OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators database.
Regulating lobbying can improve the anti-corruption framework and the business environment
Note: Number of sub-indicators (from 0 to 9) fulfilled per country.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators, oecd-public-integrity-indicators.org.
Addressing housing market challenges
Housing affordability deteriorated between 2015 and 2022 and remains a challenge
Source: OECD Analytical House Prices database.
Digitalisation of building permit procedures can help to alleviate supply constraints
Source: Eurostat Building permits database.
Reforming residential property taxes would create room to lower the burden on labour
Note: Social security contributions are treated as a part of total tax revenues.
Source: OECD Global Revenue Statistics database.
Developing the private rental market can spur residential and labour mobility
Source: OECD Affordable Housing database.
Expanding targeted support would improve living conditions of the most vulnerable households
Source: OECD Affordable Housing database.
Transitioning to carbon neutrality
Policy action must accelerate to reach carbon neutrality by 2050
Note: Greenhouse gas emissions include those from the land use/land use change and forestry sector (LULUCF).
Source: OECD Environment database; OECD Population database; OECD calculations.
Strengthening incentives for housing renovations can help achieve environmental goals and reduce energy costs
International Energy Agency (IEA).
Source:
Increasing the share of low emissions vehicles and improving public transport would reduce emissions
Source: OECD Environment Statistics database.
Main messages
Fiscal
Step up fiscal consolidation to rebuild fiscal space and prepare for rapid population ageing
Enhance skill provision at all stages of the learning cycle, foster domestic innovation capacity and improve the business environment
Housing Green
Improve housing affordability by strengthening supply and through targeted support to lowincome households, and develop the private rental market
Price carbon emissions more consistently across the economy, strengthen incentives to accelerate housing renovations and increase low- carbon transport
Productivity
For more information
Disclaimers:
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