Slovakia

The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the close of World War I allowed the Slovaks to join the closely related Czechs to form Czechoslovakia. Following the chaos of World War II, Czechoslovakia became a Communist nation within Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Soviet influence collapsed in 1989 and Czechoslovakia once more became free. The Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate peacefully on 1 January 1993. Slovakia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004 and the euro area on 1 January 2009.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Euro (ISO code: EUR)
 * Central bank discount rate: 1% (31 December 2008)
 * Commercial banks lending rate: NA%
 * Stock of money (M1): $847.3 million (31 December 2008)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $23.15 billion (31 December 2008)
 * is part of the Eurozone since 2009

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1991

Links

 * Slovakia on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Slovakia
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * BBC country profile
 * Price of the State
 * The end of Slovakia’s flat tax by Jana Liptáková, December 2012
 * Slovakia’s ratings continue to drop by Beata Balogová and Roman Cuprik, December 2012