The meeting was held under Chatham House Rules for the political issues and with free quotations on the economic issues.

Principal conclusions and findings:

• The meeting covered several connected topics including Slovak economic situation after adoption of EURO, Slovak views on the development in the Eurozone in connection with the fiscal debt crisis and the current situation in Greece and the quantitative easing of the ECB and its impact.
• The hardship of the people in Slovakia and in other poorer countries in Eurozone with acceptation of further sureties over Greek debt has been explained on the example that the current Greek government wants to increase the minimum salary in Greece to a level which is higher than the average salary in these countries. Under this conditions it is very hard to explain to people that the surety for Greek debt is an issue of mutual solidarity.
• The journalists in particular appreciated the insightful remark by Mr. Karpiš about limitation of the GDP as an indicator of the condition of Slovak economy. The production of multinational companies (which is significant for GDP in Slovakia) is taxed very low in Slovakia and more than usually transferred abroad. As a more suitable indicator of the Slovak economic condition Mr. Karpiš suggested the average salary or even better the median salary as this indicate the money that really stays in the economy.
• While the quantitative easing of the ECB may produce bubbles even in Slovakia, for instance in the real estate sector, the current economic situation of Slovakia is, as a result of the recent recession, still too near to its economic bottom. It will most probably take some time until real estate sector in Slovakia would become overheated.

Organizer

AMO

In cooperation with

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom