(Repeats story published late on Thursday)
* WHAT: Czech, Hungarian, Slovak Q3 GDP
* WHEN: Friday, Nov. 14
* Slovakia seen ahead of its immediate neighbours with 7.1
pct growth
* Hungary seen slowest in Q3 with 2.2 pct growth
By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The collapse in western
European demand and the credit crunch forced central European
economies to tap the brakes in the third quarter, Reuters polls
showed, with Slovakia staying ahead of its immediate neighbours.
Markets ranging from the Baltics to the Black Sea have been
hammered by investor flight, concerns over whether countries
have borrowed too much abroad, and fears that a years-long
economic boom will cease due to a global downturn.
Economic woes causing consumers to tighten their belts in in
the euro zone -- emerging Europe's main export market -- means
fewer of the cars and electronics produced here are being sold.
On top of that, mistrust between banks has locked up credit
markets, raising the cost of borrowing for firms and consumers
at home and undermining hope that domestic demand can take up
much of the slack of the falling sales abroad.
A Reuters survey [] forecast Slovakia growing by
7.1 percent from July to September, down from 7.6 percent in the
second quarter but far ahead of the Czech Republic, Poland and
Hungary, the last of which could slide into recession next year.
It saw growth of 4.8 percent in 2009 for Slovakia, a huge
drop from last year's full-year result of 10.4 percent.
"Risks to solid growth are skewed to the downside," said
Jaromir Sindel analysts at Citibank.
"All in all, we expect Slovak export performance to suffer
from weak European demand, and the current positive output gap
is likely to become negative in 2009-2010."
The Czechs, Hungarians and Slovaks will release gross
domestic product data on Friday, and the Poles on Nov. 28.
Tethered to a $25 billion IMF/EU lifeline to save it from a
financial crisis last month, Hungary is seen as worst off of the
countries known as the "Visegrad Four". It was expected to grow
2.2 percent last quarter, flat from the second quarter,
according to an October poll.
On Thursday, the government launched a $6.9 billion stimulus
package to stoke growth. It is bracing for a possible recession
in 2009, while foreign owned factories in the country's
economy-driving auto sector are shedding thousands of jobs.
The trend may worsen. German third quarter growth data --
which can act as a weathervane for how central Europe is faring
-- showed a second economic contraction in two quarters and put
Europe's biggest economy in its first recession in five years.
Czech growth was seen plunging to 3.8 percent, its lowest
rate since 2003, mainly on the euro zone slump [].
It grew 4.6 percent the previous quarter and 6.6 in 2007.
Poland, the biggest of the four and helped by its large
internal market, was seen growing 4.8 percent in the third
quarter, versus 5.8 percent the previous three months.
(Reporting by Martin Santa, editing by Andy Bruce)
