Measures and Perspective of Convergence of Slovak Republic to the Eu

Within the European Union is economic and social cohesion one of the main operational priorities. Cohesion is achieved mainly through the promotion of growth-enhancing conditions and reduction of disparities among the levels of development of EU member states which are key targets of the European Cohesion Policy. In the current period further slowdown in economic growth has occurred which has led to the suspension of catch-up process of Slovakia. Real convergence showed poorer results than nominal convergence and recent data on nominal convergence shows that in the current low-inflation environment almost all EU countries could fulfil the inflation criterion. The goal of the paper is to analyse the convergence of the Slovak economy through the development of the main indicators of real and nominal convergence to the EU and an impact assessment on the possible development of the Slovak economy. In the analysis of convergence are also estimates of absolute and conditional convergence and its impact on economic development. The results confirm that catchup process takes place in the EU, which is influenced by several external factors. They also confirm the reduction of disparities among EU countries, which are generally still higher than the difference between the price index items within these countries.