Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

In 2005, the economic development of Slovakia was positively influenced by successful implementation of structural reforms in previous years. High level of economic growth was combined with favourable macroeconomic stability. GDP growth was achieved mainly due to overall growth of resources and total factor productivity. Fiscal and monetary policies also contributed to suitable overall macroeconomic stability. The forecast of economic growth for the year 2006 is based on analysis of possible development of domestic and foreign demand. Further increase of economic growth is anticipated. Keywords: macroeconomic development, economic growth, country study, domestic and foreign demand JEL Classification: 011, 052

The objective of this paper is to characterize the circumstances under which high economic growth that was achieved in 2005 was reflected in different seg-ments of the supply side of the economy both from the perspective of its dynamics and changes in its structure. The paper analyzes the development of GDP from the perspective of its branches, trends in the development of the main branches, changes in the financial positions of corporations, and the last part of the paper will focus on the dynamics of the Slovak foreign trade, especially the changes in the technological competitiveness of this sector. Keywords: economic growth, production, external trade JEL Classification: E23, L60, O10

In 2005, the economic policy of Slovakia was one of the determinants in contributing to strong economic growth and relatively high level of macroeonomic equlibria. The policy mix (consolidation of public finances together with monetary policy oriented towards desinflation) created a forseable macroeconomic framework. The formation of the most relevant segments of macroeconomic policy led not only to quantitative improvement in macroeconomic equlibria of the economy (public finance deficit, inflation rate) but also led to improvement of the policy decisionmaking quality. The ongoing reform of public finance governance (in the field of fiscal policy) and inflation targeting (in the field of monetary policy) led to improvement in credibility of these economic policy segments. The aim of this article is to evaluate measures which where specific in the year 2005 and contribution of these policies to the sustainable development of the Slovak economy. Keywords: fiscal policy, monetary policy, public debt, Slovakia, inflation targeting, inflation rate, fiscal decentralization JEL Classificaton: E52, E62, E63, H50

In previous years, development of macroeconomic parameters was favourable, excerpt the labour market. Trends in unemployment rate, as well as development of real wages seemed not to be in accord with high economic growth. In 2005, the development on the labour market was different, and more favourable than in previous years. However, the reduction of the unemployment rate was connected with the emerging of other king of imbalance – higher growth of real wages compared with lower growth of productivity. This article explains chan-ges in the development trends in the year 2005, makes statements to some discussed topics (risks of imbalance between wage growth and productivity growth or the scope of tax wedge) and indicates the possible development projections in the years 2006 and 2007. Keywords: labour market, employment, labour force JEL Classificaton: J21, J31, J64

This paper tries to assess the process of real and nominal convergence of the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic in comparison with other New Member States (NMS-8) and the EU-25. The methodology is based on international comparisons of macroeconomic indicators, especially by means of GDP per capita indicator calculated in purchasing power parity and on alternative indicators of real gross domestic income, which comprises gains or losses from the terms of trade changes. Chapter 1 contains theoretical and methodological issues relating to this process. Chapter 2 examines the process of catching-up and the changes of economic position in NMS-8 within the framework of EU-25. It also deals with the trade-off between the real and nominal convergence, especially as regards the comparative price levels (CPL). The perspective of real and nominal convergence is analysed at the end of the paper. Keywords: real and nominal convergence, purchasing power parity, comparative price level, gross domestic product, real gross domestic income, terms of trade JEL Classification: E31, F15, F43, J30, O11

Systematic appreciation of the Slovak Crown in the year 2004, 2005 and at the beginning of the year 2006 brings up the debate about objectivity of this process. In this paper we describe the development of the Slovak currency on the basis of selected macroeconomic indicators’ development (gross domestic product, M2, foreign currency reserve, direct foreign investment, interest rates BRIBOR and EURIBOR, etc.), and it is possible to observe, that the appreciation of the Slovak Crown is valid. The estimation of the economic hypothesis was realized after the analysis of the stationarity of the used time series. We have chosen nine of the many formulations of the simple econometric models, those estimators are the best linear unbiased estimators of the parameters of the formulated economic hypothesis. Keywords: monetary policy, exchange rate, macroeconomic indicators, analysis of stationarity JEL Classification: E10, E42