THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRISIS ON WOOD AND WOOD PRODUCTS MARKET IN SLOVAKIA

This paper deals with the analysis of the impact of global financial and economic crisis on wood and wood.products market in Slovakia in the years 2008-2013. It describes the nature of the latest economic and financial crisis, its development and impacts. The analysis is based on the market indicators development for the main categories of wood products defined by the FAO classification of forest products. The impact of economic crises on the market is examined through the analysis of development of production, consumption, trade and prices of selected wood and wood products in the respective period. Demand for solid wood products is mostly driven by the development of specific sectors such as the construction or industrial production, while paper and paperboard market is dependent on the development of gross domestic product per capita. The results indicate that due to the different economic drivers at specific product markets there were differences in the development of market with the solid and composite wood products and the products of pulp and paper industry identified. In particular, fuel wood production increased by 24%, while production of sawnwood decreased by 50%, wood based panels by 30% and paper and paperboard by 21%. Similarly, consumption of pulp dropped by 8%, paper and paperboard by 15%, while the drop in consumption of industrial roundwood was by 27% and sawnwood by 57%.