The Slovak economy expanded at its fastest rate since the end of 2015 in the third quarter of this year, up by 1.6 percentage points to 4.6%, driven up mostly by non-domestic demand, Slovak Statistics Office shows on December 7.

In 1Q18, Slovakia´s GDP increased by 3.7% y/y and in 2Q18 by 4.5% y/y.  The growth volume after seasonal adjustment grew by 1.1% in real terms quarter-on-quarter. The total GDP volume at current prices increased by 7% to €23,798.9mn.

In 3Q18, positive economic development was affected mostly by non-domestic demand with a 5.6% increase.

In the structure of domestic demand, final consumption expenditures increased by 2.7% in total. Final consumption expenditures in households grew by 3.2%, final consumption expenditures in public administration by 1.6% and final consumption expenditures of non-profit institutions serving households by 0.9%. Production of gross capital increased by 6.3%, including production of gross fixed capital with a 5.7% decrease. Import of products and services rose by 5.4%.

The added value amounted to €21,520mn of the generated GDP, with a 4.5% y/y increase. It rose in all sectors, including financial and insurance activities by 16%, construction by 9.5%, agriculture by 8.5%, information and communication by 6.4%, industry and real estate activities equally by 4.2%, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, transportation, accommodation and food service by 2.4%. Increasing trend was also seen in collection of net taxes on products by 5.8%.

In 9M18, production of gross domestic product reached the value of €66,877.1mn, an increase by 6.7% y/y.