The rank of Slovakia from the poorest is 130 and from the richest is 73 using atlas method in 2003 with gdp per capita 4,920 $. In other methods IMF,WB,and CIA using nominal method in 2007, 2007, and 2008 respectivelyIMF................................................WB.....................................................CIA
rank/measure............................rank/measure............................................rank/ measure
42/13,857.............................34/13,887.................................................43/13,766
The economy of Slovakia is a high income economy.[8] With the highest sustained GDP growth in the European Union, reporting 10.4% in 2007 and the highest rating from V4 countries,[9] the Slovak economy has been considered a tiger economy known as the Tatra Tiger. Slovakia has been an EU member state since 2004 and adopted the euro currency at the beginning of 2009. Its capital, Bratislava, is the largest financial centre in Slovakia. Unemployment has fallen considerably, although long-term unemployment remains high. GDP per capita at purchasing power parity was €18,100 in 2010, which was 74% of the EU average.
Since the establishment of the Slovak Republic in January 1993, Slovakia has undergone a transition from a centrally planned economy to a free market economy, a process which some observers were to believe was slowed in the 1994–98 period due to the crony capitalism and other fiscal policies of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's government. While economic growth and other fundamentals improved steadily during Mečiar's term, public and private debt and trade deficits also rose, and privatizationwas uneven. Real annual GDP growth peaked at 6.5% in 1995 but declined to 1.3% in 1999.
Two governments of the "liberal-conservative" Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda (1998–2006) pursued policies of macroeconomic stabilization and market-oriented structural reforms. Nearly the entire economy has now been privatizatized, and foreign investment has picked up. Economic growth exceeded expectations in the early 2000s, despiterecession in key export markets. In 2001 policies of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform led to spiraling unemployment. Unemployment peaked at 19.2% [2](Eurostat regional indicators) in 2001 and though it has fallen to (depending on the methodology) 9.8%([citation needed] or 13.5%[citation needed] as of September 2006, it remains a problem. Solid domestic demand boosted economic growth to 4.1% in 2002. Strong export growth, in turn, pushed economic growth to a still-strong 4.2% in 2003 and 5.4% in 2004, despite a downturn in household consumption. Multiple reasons entailed a GDP growth of 6% in 2005. Headline consumer price inflation dropped from 26% in 1993 to an average rate of 7.5% in 2004, though this was boosted by hikes in subsidized utilities prices ahead of Slovakia's accession to theEuropean Union. In July 2005, the inflation rate dropped to 2.0% and is projected at less than 3% in 2005 and 2.5% in 2006. In 2006, Slovakia reached the highest economic growth (8.9%) among the members of OECD and the third highest in the EU (just behind Estonia and Latvia). The country has had difficulties addressing regional imbalances in wealth and employment.[10] GDP per capita ranges from 178% of EU average in Bratislava to only 49% in Eastern Slovakia.
