September 9 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's economic growth is expected to slow down to 0.3% on a quarterly basis in the third quarter of 2022 following a 0.9% expansion in April-June, due to the continuing Russian war on Ukraine and the resulting international sanctions, Slovenia's central bank said.
"A slowdown is suggested in particular by the economic sentiment indicator, which remained negative in August, where the most notable factors were consumer reluctance to make major purchases and a decline in the assessment of order books in manufacturing," the central bank said in a statement earlier this week.
It also noted that employment remains at record-high levels and firms are largely hiring foreign workers, while wage growth remains moderate.
"High growth in exports of travel services has seen the deterioration in the current account balance come to an end in recent months. Nominal growth in merchandise exports remained high, with positive developments in all the main categories. Developments on the import side were even stronger, most notably merchandise imports from Russia, which in June were ten times higher than the monthly average over the 20 years before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, as a result of surging energy prices," the central bank said.
The consolidated general government deficit over the first seven months of the year was down significantly in year-on-year terms at 300 million euro ($303 million), as revenues recorded high growth and expenditure declined as payments related to the pandemic fell.
The main risks over the following months and next year are a deterioration in the economic situation and potential new measures for mitigating the impact of the energy crisis, according to the central bank.
Slovenia's economic output rose by a real 8.2% year-on-year and by 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in the April-June period of 2022, according to data from the country's statistical office.
($ = 0.989814 euro)