Editing Economy of Slovakia (section)

==History==
Since the establishment of the Slovak Republic in January 1993, Slovakia has undergone a transition from a centrally [[planned economy]] to a [[free market economy]], a process which some observers were to believe was slowed in the 1994–98 period due to the [[crony capitalism]] and other fiscal policies of Prime Minister [[Vladimír Mečiar]]'s government. While economic growth and other fundamentals improved steadily during Mečiar's term, public and private debt and [[trade deficit]]s also rose, and [[privatization]] was uneven. Real annual GDP growth peaked at 6.5% in 1995 but declined to 1.3% in 1999.

Two governments of the "liberal-conservative" Prime Minister [[Mikuláš Dzurinda]] (1998–2006) pursued policies of macroeconomic stabilization and market-oriented structural reforms. Nearly the entire economy has now been privatized, and foreign investment has picked up. Economic growth exceeded expectations in the early 2000s, despite [[recession]] in key export markets. In 2001 policies of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform led to spiraling unemployment. Unemployment peaked at 19.2% (Eurostat regional indicators) in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icegec.hu/eng/publications/_docs/news/news_2006_february.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704030244/http://www.icegec.hu/eng/publications/_docs/news/news_2006_february.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 July 2007|title=News of the Month|work=International Center for Economic Growth|page=14|date=February 2006}}</ref> Solid domestic demand boosted economic growth to 4.1% in 2002. Strong export growth, in turn, pushed economic growth to a still-strong 4.2% in 2003 and 5.4% in 2004, despite a downturn in household consumption. Multiple reasons entailed a GDP growth of 6% in 2005. Headline consumer price inflation dropped from 26% in 1993 to an average rate of 7.5% in 2004, though this was boosted by hikes in subsidized utilities prices ahead of Slovakia's accession to the [[European Union]]. In July 2005, the inflation rate dropped to 2.0% and is projected at less than 3% in 2005 and 2.5% in 2006. In 2006, Slovakia reached the highest economic growth (8.9%) among the members of [[OECD]] and the third highest in the EU (just behind [[Economy of Estonia|Estonia]] and [[Economy of Latvia|Latvia]]). The country has had difficulties addressing regional imbalances in wealth and employment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba/qsonhist/regionalwealthslovakia.html#skpppmap |title=Regional Wealth |access-date=2010-04-10 |last=Votruba |first=Martin |work=Slovak Studies Program |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |archive-date=2 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602052022/http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba/qsonhist/regionalwealthslovakia.html#skpppmap |url-status=dead }}</ref> GDP per capita ranges from 188% of EU average in Bratislava to only 54% in Eastern Slovakia.

About 10% of the Slovak labour force is expatriate in 2014. The country has one of the highest levels of long-term unemployment in Europe, with 7.1% of the labour force unemployed for more than a year in 2017.<ref name=":0" />

99.9% of Slovak firms are [[Small and medium-sized enterprises|small and medium-sized]] enterprises and they account for 73.3% of all jobs in the country. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Slovak high tech metallurgy business booms with EU financing |url=https://www.eib.org/en/stories/slovak-high-tech |access-date=2023-09-25 |website=European Investment Bank |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Adamcová |first=Eva |date=2021-05-26 |title=Small and medium-sized enterprises in the regions of the Slovak Republic |url=https://monitoringmsp.sk/en/2021/05/26/small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-in-the-regions-of-the-slovak-republic/ |access-date=2023-09-25 |website=Monitoring MSP |language=en-US}}</ref>