Amazing Financial Investment Opportunities

When selecting two dates and comparing mid-term development one realizes that Slovakia is a great market for financial investments. For instance in the past year the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, and the London Stock Exchange FTSE index all went down by about 23 to 24%. To the contrary, Slovakia’s Stock Exchange (SAX) went up by 5%.

In addition, the local currency strengthened by 12% when compared to the $U.S. and 11% when compared to Euro. So an investment of $U.S. 1 million in Slovakia’s Stock Exchange on October 1, 2007 would result in $U.S. 1.18 mil. a year later. The same investments in NASDAQ or NYSE after the same period would generate a $U.S. 0.24 mil. loss, leaving only $US 0.76 mil. A comparison of virtually any two mid-term date reference points would demonstrate that the Slovak Stock Exchange is appreciating substantially more than those in established western markets. When taking into consideration longer time trends, the benefits to Slovak markets are even more prevalent.

An investment of $U.S. 1 mil. 6 years ago into Slovak Stock Exchange would have resulted in $U.S. 5.89 mil. on Oct. 1, 2008. In comparison the same investment in NYSE, Nasdaq, or London Stock Exchange would result in 1.37 mil., 1.72 mil. or 1.47 mil. respectively. So the Slovak Stock Exchange produced the yield of 6.8 to 13.2 times(!) the yields in Western markets.

The current crisis situation makes all investment and yields a bit shaky. Slovakia once again made the smart decision to quickly adopt Euros. Witold Orlowski, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Warsaw said “Some central Europeans missed the bus. They can now sit and cry that they will not be joining with Slovakia on January 1, 2009.”

It is impossible to predict with certainty the crisis future impact since it also depends on the measures taken now. Most analysts and economists agree that Slovakia, with the Czech Republic and Poland, should be among the least affected countries. BusinessWeek on Nov. 4, 2008 stated, “more advanced economies such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland appear better positioned to ride this out.” La Guardian also noted on Nov. 3, 2008: “Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will weather the global financial crisis relatively well but the Baltic republics and Hungary will be hit hard”.