Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Daw
 It's sad how you think that in ANY Slavic country people actually have the vote. Yes, you put the voting paper into the box... but that's it. (see the latest case in Russia, Ukraine...).
1) Every company partaking in the food production was ordered to seize their activity for some laugable EU funds. Needless to say... that it was binding for everybody. What will we eat? People asked. |
"Your country", Slovakia, was approved for accession into the EU in 2002, held a referendum on May 17, 2003,
and formally joined the EU on May first 2004. I do not know, how the below tables will display in this thread,
but the figures speak for themselves. I believe, that most of us in other countries would be jealous of the
relative economic performance of Slovakia since joining the EU.
From Banking to Mining to Labor. Here's a look
at various modern economic structures that are in place in the Slovak Republic.
Macroeconomic Performance & Forecast for 2007
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
GDP growth (%) 3.4 4.8 4.8 5.2 6.6 8.5 8.7(f)
GDP (US$ bn) 62.8 68.6 73.1 78.9 86.1
Inflation (%) 7.2 3.5 8.4 7.5 2.8 4.3
Unemployment (%) 19.3 18.7 17.6 18.2 16.3 13.4
Fiscal balance (% of GDP) -6.5 -7.7 -2.7 -2.4 -2.8 -3.7
Foreign debt (% of GDP) 49.2 43.3 42.4 41.4 34.2 30.4
In 2007, Slovakia reached the highest economic growth among the members of OECD and the EU. The annual GDP growth was 10.4%
at constant prices, with the record level of 14.3% reached in the fourth quarter.[12] In 2010, Slovakia grew by 4.0% which was
the highest growth among new EU member states
Central bank National Bank of Slovakia
Slovakia is part of the Eurosystem and the European Central Bank
International Reserves US$ 2.207 billion (Source: IMF; Data updated: November 2010) Gross Domestic Product - GDP US$ 95.177 billion
(2010 estimate) GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) 126.098 billion of International dollars (2010 estimate) Real GDP growth
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
1.4% 3.5% 4.6% 4.8% 5% 6.7% 8.5% 10.6%
2008 2009 2010 2011*
6.2% -4.8% 4% 3.8%
I rest my case
PS: While not all sectors of the Slovak economy may have prospered equally from the accession to the EU, there
is no doubt, that the EU was good for the country as a whole.