S&P confirmed Slovakia’s rating A+, but the outlook worsened to the negative
Global development is especially a risk.
BRATISLAVA. The International Agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) confirmed Slovakia on Friday at A+level, but worsened its view from stable to the negative. Global development is especially a risk.
« The good news is that Slovakia has maintained the A+level rating, which is two levels better rating than from Fitch and Moody’s. The uncertainty, which is brought by the threat of global commercial wars, is also worse by Slovakia’s view from stable to the negative, » said the Ministry of Finance (MF) of the Slovak Republic.
According to the Ministry, S&P analysts registers the government’s considerable efforts to consolidate public finances. They estimate that the deficit will be reduced to 4.7 % of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025. This assumption is thus fully in accordance with the plan of the Ministry of Finance, which was also defined in the approved budget for this year.
The agency also assumes that the Slovak economy will grow by 1.6 % in 2025 and 1.3 % in 2026. According to S&P, important investments will be funded by Eurofunds and the key driving force will be investments from the renewal and durability plan in these years.
In its evaluation, the Agency focuses on the potential risks for the Slovak economy, which threatens the impact of the unpredictable development of global trade. On the one hand, it is closely tied to Germany and, on the other, it has a significant impact on the export of cars and their components to the US.
« We have adjusted our outlook to the negative, because Slovakia is highly exported and the automotive industry is threatening to hit it with global commercial tensions, » the agency explained in its assessment, saying that it perceives a high degree of uncertainty about the implementation of tariffs by the US in the coming months.
« Maintaining A+ rating in a situation where we have taken public finances in the worst state of the EU after the former government, I consider it a positive report. Ensuring the view from stable to the negative we expected and the reasons clearly named the agency. Ladislav Kamenický (Direction).
At the same time, he appreciated that the agency perceived the effort to consolidate public finances and that these steps contributed to the maintenance of the rating.
