Slovenská ekonomická diplomacia a hospodárska kríza
Slovak Economic Diplomacy and the Economic Crisis

Author(s): Radomír Boháč
Subject(s): Politics, Economy, Supranational / Global Economy, Economic policy, International relations/trade
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: Slovakia; 2008; foreign policy; economic diplomacy; economy; crisis;
Summary/Abstract: The global economy now finds itself in its worst state since the Great Depression of 1929 – 1934. The current crisis, however, – unlike the financial crises of the 1990s in Asia, Russia or Latin America – is a global crisis. This factor means that problems are rapidly transferred from country to country. The majority of the European Union member states are in recession. Packages of stimulation measures are being adopted at historically unprecedented financial levels with the primary goal of stabilizing and restarting the frozen banking sector, reviving consumption, business and investments, maintaining employment rates, and thus creating the key nodes for future economic growth. Fundamental, and in many ways, non-standard measures are changing the architecture of financial market management as well as the rules governing international trade and business. The global economic and financial crisis is also determining the priorities of the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic – a country with an open, export-oriented economy with very limited natural resources and a small internal market, but, which has the comparative advantage of membership in the European Union (EU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other significant international institutions. Compared to the EU average, Slovakia’s situation is complicated by its higher energy consumption per unit of GDP and lower work productivity.

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