July 8 (SeeNews) - International rating firm Dun&Bradstreet (D&B) has forecast that Slovenia's gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by 7.0% this year, versus an earlier projection for a contraction of 3.5%, state-run news agency STA reported on Wednesday.
"Short term prospects for the small, export-driven economy are grim," STA said quoting D&B's July report.
In the first quarter of this year Slovenia's GDP contracted by 8.5%, compared to a growth of 5.7% a year earlier and to a 0.8% fall in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Earlier this month Slovenia’s central bank said that it expects "a significantly bigger contraction" in 2009 GDP than the 2.0% projected earlier.