Tatra Tiger

Tatra Tiger is a nickname for the Slovakia economy in the early 2000s and post 2010, given because their economy went RAWR to the surprise of the world. Liberal economic reforms were made, resulting in a super-high year-over-year growth in GDP. The growth was even much higher than economic analysts forecasted, which grabbed the world’s attention. Ergo, the Tatra Tiger (I don’t know about you, but that’s what I’m naming my next car).

Local Slavs weren’t necessarily seeing the eye of the tiger with these reforms. While the GDP growth numbers look good on paper abroad, the reforms at home also included huge cuts to social programs (think: government-run health care, pension plan system), a switch from a progressive tax to a flat tax (giving the rich a tax cut), and rocky unemployment. So while it was healthy for the economy, maybe not so much for the average Slav citizen in other ways.