United Life 02 | Page 11

Analýzy a trendy Analyses and trends According to United Group the year 2014 is full of opportunities We have overcome five years of the „Crisis“. Because of such a long time it is appropriate to write that word with the capital letter C. What will happen next? Is there any change waiting for us? Is the crisis still outlasting or are the things getting better? Besides that, each of us perceives the crisis differently. Somebody is touched more, somebody less. We can have a  look at the objective macroeconomic numbers. According to estimates for the next year, the marked improvement is not waiting for us. The GDP growth is estimated only slightly above zero, the biggest buyers of Slovakia will be glad if they get to plus numbers at all. Slovakia is probably somewhere at the top of the European Union scale with the estimates of its growth, but it will certainly not solve our biggest problem, the unemployment. The growth will be too low to start changing something positively about the unemployment. And the change is probably not waiting for us so soon. The European Union will also not move us anywhere with its crisis solutions, rather the opposite. It is increasingly showing itself rather like the bureaucratic machinery than the association of states which should create an opposition to large states and their economies. The economic decisions are made by the group of officers, not by the market. The subsidy system in the form of EU funds and direct subsidies to agriculture only nourishes the corruption and destroys the healthy entrepreneurial environment. The chosen solutions from its side rather only subdue the crisis now and instead of the single quick steps which would start the growth of economics in short time, we have chosen slow suffering and relying on some miracle in the future. But we probably have to get used to it. The politicians will change their behaviour only very hard and they will always prefer the short time goals to the long term ones. In general, in the Occident rather socialistic models of economy management are starting to predominate, the retreat from the liberal economy is obvious. It is not only in France, also the United States are socializing. The flexible possibilities for solving the unemployment are limited to firms and we can expect further gradual increase in the income tax burden and consumption too. How to be successful in such a situation? The magic words are effectiveness and flexibility. Nowadays each customer thinks every purchase twice. The only chance how to sell him any product is to fulfil all his expectations. The products should be maximally in high-quality and cost minimum. So the companies do not have any space for ineffective items at the moment. The pressure on the employees from their work load and perfection is enormous now. Can we look forward to some positives? By such a big pressure on effectiveness it is necessary to start discovering new ideas, investments and improvements. Is some invention which will turn the worldwide economy to bigger growth waiting for us next year? We hope yes. At least the shale gas shows us that not everything what appeared as the black hole and run to the doom in the past (as reducing of the crude oil reserves) will really end so. Let’s have a look at branch which is close to us from United Group as well as to Slovakia itself. What will happen on the market with automobiles? Above the mentioned effectiveness is applied also by the car producers. They try to cut down the unexploited production capacity maximally. At the same time it is not excluded at all, that any of the car makers will again