Analysts surprised by Slovakia's latest GDP figures

The growth of Slovakia's economy in the first quarter of the year came as a surprise to analysts, and the better-than-expected figures are also likely to translate into better forecasts for 2012 as a whole, TASR learnt on Tuesday. It was reported earlier in the day that Slovakia's economy grew by 3.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 and by 0.8 percent on a quarterly basis. "The market expected the annual growth to decelerate to 1.8 percent," said UniCredit bank Slovakia analyst Lubomir Korsnak.