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2.6.4 Industrial production
According to the EBRD, the homogenous nature of the Slovak
economy exposed its weakness in 2021, as the automotive sector
largely relies on imports of components and chips, of which
shortages are being experienced globally. As a result, disruptions in
supply of semiconductors have hurt Slovakia´s industrial production
very hard, which is expected to lead to renewed job shedding and
could harm the recovery in household consumption.
FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast analysts estimate Slovak
industrial production to grow by 4.9% in 2022, followed by an annual
growth of 4.1% in 2023.
Increases in input prices, shipping costs, import prices and domestic
producer prices are translating into higher than projected growth in
Slovak industrial goods prices, whose strong uptrend is expected by
the NBS to persist in 2022.
The EBRD also stressed that Slovakia has the lowest vaccination
rate in the CEB region (45% at least partially vaccinated) which
creates a risk to the industrial production due to new sporadic
lockdowns.
46 CE Outlook 2022 www.intellinews.com
