Analyst: Industrial Growth to Be Dampened by Energy Crisis This Year as Well

Bratislava, April 10 (TASR) - Industrial growth in Slovakia will continue to be held back by the impact of the energy crisis and the transformation of the European automotive industry, said analyst at UniCredit Bank Lubomir Korsnak on Thursday, commenting on the industrial production data for February published by the Statistics Office earlier in the day. "As the year progresses, however, industry could start to receive a positive impulse from the ECB's looser monetary policy, which should be gradually reflected with a slight delay in a restart of demand for investment goods in Europe. The European arms industry could also receive a positive impulse during the course of the year, but more probably next year. Indirectly, Slovak industrialists may also benefit from this, but we assume that mostly only as part of the subcontracting chain," said Korsnak. The analyst pointed out that the mood in Slovak industry hasn't improved at the beginning of the year. Confidence in industry fell again in March, further moving away from the ten-year average. The mood in domestic industry was worsened by a persistent low level of orders, but also by rising production stocks in March and weaker expectations for production in the coming months. "The weaker condition of industry has already begun to be reflected in employment expectations. Domestic industry will have to deal in particular with new tariffs on car exports to the United States in the spring. At the same time, these probably shifted part of production from the spring to the beginning of the year, thus partially improving industry's figures in the first months of the year, or at least mitigating its decline," added Korsnak. The Statistics Office reported on Thursday that Slovakia's industrial output decreased by 1.3 percent year-on-year in February 2025. After seasonal adjustments, industrial output rose by 5.2 percent month-on-month. am/df