At the end of the year, the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry conducts an economic survey of its members on the development of the Slovak economy. Why?
The aim of the survey, which we conducted for the first time 21 years ago, was to obtain a reaction from the business community, which was still not profiled at that time, to the processes of transformation of the Slovak economy. We were moving from a state-run to a market economy and we wanted to know what problems our companies face. We also wanted to know how external factors perceive us, because in Slovakia we often think that the situation in China or any other, for example, does not concern us at all. We started at a time when the economy was transforming, but we said we would make it a system. We will make a time series that will be comparable, so that we generally know how the business environment is developing in Slovakia, but also the quality of business and entrepreneurs. Today we have exactly the same time series, because we have chosen a system that approximately two thirds of the questions remain identical.

What is its telling value?
This year, the survey was used by 169 respondents, in recent years we were happy if there were about 200. A lower number was signed by a pandemic this year. Many companies perform more for their own survival than for surveys. We therefore take the result of 169 companies positively, especially from a regional point of view, but we have the whole of Slovakia covered. The survey is covered in terms of the size of companies – small, medium and large companies – and also in terms of their own. You have domestic companies, mixed ownership companies and purely foreign entities.

According to the survey, the optimism of Slovak entrepreneurs is growing again. The year 2021 should decide better for them than they expected in 2020. What to look for?
It is a set of several factors. We must realize that all those catastrophic forecasts have not been met, either for 2020 or 2021. It has happened that our business community has shown considerable resilience to external influences and entrepreneurs have found their place. We have quite a few companies in the survey claiming that their crisis has not been significantly affected. Their incomes have not decreased and, on the contrary, they are investing in the future. However, there are other areas – especially sectoral services – that are severely affected and where pessimism is even greater.

Black numbers are waiting

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