(Adds background)
BRATISLAVA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Slovak central bank said on Friday it had cut its economic growth forecast for 2009 as the country will be hit by the global financial crisis in the first year of its euro zone membership.
The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) said it now saw real gross domestic product rising by 4.7 percent next year, compared with the previous prediction of 6.6 percent economic expansion.
The revised forecast is roughly in line with government's latest prediction of 4.6 percent GDP growth for 2009.
The regular update of central bank's economic forecasts, published on its web page (www.nbs.sk), showed the NBS expected real GDP growth of 7.5 percent this year, slightly less than an originally predicted 7.6 percent.
The central bank did not comment on the new forecasts, saying it would publish more details on Dec. 19.
Slovakia's banking system has been largely shielded from a direct impact of turmoil on world markets, but the small economy relying heavily on exports of cars and TV sets will be affected by weaker demand for its goods from its main western markets.
Despite the expected slowdown, Slovakia should remain one of the fastest growing economies in the EU next year when it becomes the 16th member of the euro zone.
Slovakia's GDP rose by real 7.0 percent in the third quarter of 2008, slowing from 7.9 percent in the previous quarter. (Reporting by Martin Santa, writing by Peter Laca, editing by Victoria Main and Andy Bruce)