The investment rate in Slovakia is lagging behind the EU average, as between 2022 and 2024, less than 21 % of gross domestic product (GDP) achieved fixed investments in the country. Compared to the period 2010 to 2019, this is a reduction in investment rate by one percentage point (PB). Investment activity in the Slovak Republic has decreased mainly in the industry sector, but also fell in public services. Slovakia is gradually losing the ability to attract new foreign investments. Evaluated this analyst UniCredit Bank Ľubomír Koršňák.
“Due to the size of the economy, Slovak public investments have been even slightly lower than on average in the EU in the last three yearsand 3.4 % vs. 3.5 % of GDP, despite the ever -running cohesive EU budget financing programs, which helps to raise public investments on average in the Central and Eastern Europe region (CEE) up to 4.6 % of GDP. Even recent years have shown that Slovakia relies mainly on public investments mainly on EU resources and, unlike other countries of the region, it does not sufficiently fill in domestic resources, ” Koršňák said.
In recent years, gro fixed investments have been mainly building investments in recent years. Compared to the period 2010 to 2019, however, it decreased slightly and caused a decline in the total investment rate of 0.3 PB even more significantly reduced this rate investments in machines and equipment, by 1.1 PB investments in development and software, although it grew in Slovakia, but significantly slower than other EU countries.
According to the analyst, the decline in investment rates is visible in the public and private sector of the Slovak economy. The influx of new foreign investments has slowed in the country in recent years, and currently has the lowest ability to attract new foreign capital among the EU countries.
“The reasons may be diverse. The growing administrative and tax burden in the economy, but no doubt does not help to attract foreign capital to the country. The problem for foreign investors can also be a poor law enforcement that increases the likelihood of impairment of investment by unfair practices or instability of the environment. Parties of the private sector, ” closed Koršňák.
