Analysts: Outlook for Slovak Industry in Coming Months Still Not Optimistic

Bratislava, May 11 (TASR) - The war in Ukraine, as well as the effects of tightening monetary conditions in several important export markets should still undermine the condition of several sectors of Slovak industry, making the outlook for Slovak industry in the coming months still not optimistic, stated UniCredit Bank Czech analyst Lubomir Korsnak, commenting on the March industrial production data published by the Statistics Office. "A slight hope for improvement and correction of the extremely weak March numbers is at least brought by industrial confidence, which recovered to a more than one-year high in April, pulled up by higher orders and higher expected output in the next three months. In the coming months, especially in the second half of the year, industry could finally benefit from slowly recovering external demand. However, its growth will still be relatively subdued and will remain well below the long-term average," added Korsnak. "We expect industrial output to be under pressure, especially in the first half of the current year. Later in the third and fourth quarters we expect a gradual global recovery, which will also pull Slovak industry," added analyst at Slovenska sporitelna bank Marian Kocis. am/mcs