The Slovak Republic's accession to the OECD as the thirtieth member country in December 2000 followed the introduction of a number of reforms to advance its transition to a market economy. The accession occurred at the end of a period of sluggish economic growth due largely to macroeconomic stabilisation policies adopted to counteract the impact of earlier policies that had proved to be unsustainable. Final domestic demand fell by nearly 10 per cent between 1998 and 2000. Meanwhile, core inflation -- which excludes administered prices and indirect taxes -- slowed slightly and the current account deficit was halved to less than 4 per cent of GDP. A significantly positive contribution from external demand enabled Slovakia to avoid a recession, however, with output growing at a 2 per cent annual rate in 1999 and 2000...