Slovenia's GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.5% in real terms last year, the Statistics Office said in its first annual estimate after reporting 5.4% growth in February based on the aggregation of quarterly data.

Apart from being substantially below the original estimate, the figure also marks a slowdown in comparison to the post-pandemic growth of 8.2% recorded in 2021.

After the regular revision of annual estimates, Slovenia's GDP in 2022 is estimated at €57.038 billion. Compared to 2021, it was 9.1% higher at current prices, which means taking inflation into account.

However, when excluding the effect of rising prices, growth was 2.5% in real terms, the Statistics Office said on 31 August. Production had grown by 3.7% in real terms, and intermediate consumption by 4.8%.

Contributing the most to the growth were professional, scientific and technical activities (0.6 percentage points) and the hospitality sector (0.6 points). The growth in the latter sector is attributed to the post-Covid recovery.

On the other hand, manufacturing had the greatest negative effect (-0.7 percentage points), followed by commerce (-0.6 points) and the electricity, gas and steam supply (-0.2 points).

On the expenditure side of GDP, the statisticians note a moderate growth in final consumption by households (by 3.3%), while the final consumption by the state decreased by 0.5% in real terms.

Inventories increased by €1.515 billion, contributing one percentage point to the GDP growth, while gross fixed capital formation was up by 3.5% in real terms.

Imports of goods and services increased by 9% in real terms and exports by 7.2%. A surplus of €1.29 billion was nevertheless recorded, but was the lowest in the past ten years.

The Statistics Office explained that the substantial difference in the economic growth estimate review this time was due to substantial price hikes.

Due to limited data sources, quarterly estimates are based on so-called single deflation of value added, while annual estimates are based on double deflation, as they cover more detailed components of value added.