Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central and Danubian Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometers (almost 19,000 square miles). The Slovak Republic borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, UN, OECD, WTO, UNESCO and other international organizations
Slovakia is a developed country and a high-income economy with the fastest growth rates in the EU and OECD. It joined the European Union in 2004 and joined the Eurozone on the 1st of January, 2009.
The Slovak economy is considered a tiger economy, with the country dubbed the Tatra Tiger. Slovakia has achieved a difficult transition from a centrally planned economy to a modern, high-income market economy. Major privatizations are nearly complete, the banking sector is almost completely in private hands, and foreign investment has picked up.
Slovakia's economy is characterized by sustained high economic growth. In 2006, Slovakia achieved the highest growth of GDP (8.9%) among the members of OECD. The annual GDP growth in 2007 is estimated at 10.4% with the record level of 14.3% reached in the fourth quarter.
Unemployment, peaking at 19.2% at the end of 1999, decreased to 7.51% in October 2008 according to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. In addition to economic growth, migration of workers to other EU countries also contributed to this reduction. According to Eurostat, which uses a calculation method different from that of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, the unemployment rate is still the second highest after Spain in the EU-15 group at 9.9%.
Inflation dropped from an average annual rate of 12.0% in 2000 to just 3.3% in the election year 2002, but it rose again in 2003-2004 because of increases in taxes and regulated prices. It reached 3.7 % in 2005.
Slovakia adopted the euro currency on 1 January 2009 as the 16th member of the Eurozone. The euro in Slovakia was approved by the European commission on 7 May 2008. The Slovak koruna was revalued on 28 May 2008 to 30.126 for 1 euro, which was also the exchange rate for the euro.
Slovakia is an attractive country for foreign investors mainly because of its lower labour costs, low tax rates and well educated labour force. In recent years, Slovakia has been pursuing a policy of encouraging foreign investment. FDI inflow grew more than 600% from 2000 and cumulatively reached an all-time high of $17.3 billion USD in 2006, or around $18,000 per capita by the end of 2006.
Despite a sufficient number of researchers and a solid secondary educational system, Slovakia, along with other post-communist countries, still faces many challenges in the field of modern knowledge economy. The business and public research and development expenditures are well below the EU average. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Slovak secondary education as the 30th in the world (placing it just below the United States and just above Spain).
In March 2008, the Ministry of Finance announced that Slovakia's economy is developed enough to stop being an aid receiver from the World Bank. Slovakia will become an aid provider by the end of 2008.
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| Number of EWB companies registered | 0
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| National EwB coordinator | Linda Sombatiova |
| Email | sombatiova [at] jasr.sk |
| Official languages | Slovak |
| Population | 5,379,455 |
| GDP |
$109.677 billion
Per capita $22,241
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| Currency | Euro (€) (EUR) |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| Internet TLD | .sk |
| Calling code | +421 |
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