PRAGUE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Czech economic growth should inch up to 2.1 percent in 2010 after sliding to 1.4 percent or less this year, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. The ministry said in a quarterly forecast that the public sector gap would jump to three percent of gross domestic product this year, from the previously predicted 1.6 percent amid the financial crisis, and dip to 2.9 percent in 2010.
The 2009 predictions confirm an outlook given by Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek last week.
"The risks of the forecast are tilted to the downside," the ministry said in a statement.
"(Growth) should be driven mainly by household spending over the entire forecast horizon," it said.
The European Commission forecast last week the central European country would grow by 1.7 percent this year.
The Czech Republic has sailed through the global financial sector crisis relatively unscathed thanks to conservative and strongly capitalised banks, but collapsing demand in the euro zone has begun to weigh heavily on the export-oriented economy.
Industrial output slumped by 17.4 percent and exports fell 18 percent year-on-year in November.
The ministry forecast current account gap of just 1.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, down from 2.3 percent expected in the previous prediction, showing the country should maintain a relatively strong external position.
(For a TABLE pls click on [ID:nPRA002342]) (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Ron Askew)