The Slovak central bank and the finance ministry on Tuesday predicted a much deeper-than-expected recession for 2009 but agreed that the economy would return to growth next year. The central bank said it expected the economy to contract by 4.2 percent this year, much worse than its previous estimate for 2.4 percent in the face of the worst global slump since the 1930s. The finance ministry made an even more dramatic revision, with the economy set to shrink 6.2 percent this year instead of grow 2.4 percent. 'We have chosen the most conservative outlook in order to be able to review the 2009 state budget,' Finance Minister Jan Pociatek told a press conference. Central bank governor Ivan Sramko said the bank's forecast was 'in line with a worsening outlook in the eurozone as the European Central Bank expects a contraction of 4.6 percent in 2009. 'The contraction is deeper than we expected in our previous outlook due to low global demand and falling domestic consumption caused by growing unemployment and falling salaries,' central bank board member Peter Sevcovic added. Both the central bank and the finance ministry said they expected the economy to resume growth next year. 'We expect the economy to recover in 2010 with growth of 2.4 percent as a result of slight growth in foreign demand,' Sramko said. 'In 2011, we expect the economy to grow 4.1 percent following the launch of production of a new car model' at the Slovak plant of German auto giant Volkswagen, he added. Tatra Banka analyst Juraj Valachy told selfnews that the central bank's revised forecast was 'more realistic.' 'The finance ministry's outlook is more pessimistic in order to prevent further changes in the state budget,' Valachy said, referring to political problems in keeping the public finances in order. He said he did not expect the eurozone economy to do worse than expected this year but added: 'The question is how fast it will be able to recover?' Car production in Slovakia, the pillar of what was once one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union, has been badly hit by the slump in demand sparked by the global downturn. In April, car output fell 51.6 percent after a revised 30.9-percent decline in March compared with a year earlier. The Slovak economy contracted 5.6 percent on a 12-month comparison in the first quarter of 2009, after 2.5-percent growth in the last quarter of 2008. For full-year 2008, it grew 6.4 percent after a record 10.4 percent gain in 2007. The European Commission said in May that the Slovak economy, driven by exports of cars and electronics produced mostly by foreign manufacturers based here, would contract by 2.6 percent this year. 