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BRATISLAVA, April 7 (Reuters) - The Slovak central bank on Tuesday forecast the country would suffer its first economic contraction in 2009 as the global economic crisis hits its main export markets in the West.
The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) said its new forecasts saw gross domestic product contracting by 2.4 percent this year, compared with the previous forecast of 2.1 percent growth.
The NBS also said in the regular update of its forecasts that it saw real GDP growth of 2.0 percent next year, down from the previous prediction of 5.8 percent expansion.
"There has been a change of view on the development of Slovakia's economy," NBS Vice-governor Martin Barto told a news conference.
"The main feature is that Slovakia will swing into recession this year. We expect a return to growth next year, which will continue in the year 2011," Barto said.
The chief reason for the downturn is the impact of the global economic crisis affecting both Slovakia's export-oriented industries and domestic consumption, the central bank said.
The country's official statistics office has said Slovakia has not had negative economic growth since it emerged as an independent state in 1993 following the peaceful break-up of Czechoslovakia.
Slovakia has not had to bail out any of its banks because they have engaged mainly in domestic financing covered by deposits.
But the 80-billion-euro economy has been hit by weakening demand for its key exports, mainly cars and electronics goods, as consumers in the West curtail spending.
Slovak growth slowed last year to 6.4 percent from a record high of 10.4 percent in 2007.
The depth of the slump in Europe was highlighted by data revised downward on Tuesday to show the euro zone economy recorded its deepest ever quarterly fall in the last three months of 2008. (Reporting by Martin Santa, writing by Peter Laca, editing by Stephen Nisbet)