BRATISLAVA, October 27, (WEBNOVINY) — Preliminary data of the National Bank of Slovakia show that the deficit on Slovakia’s current account of the balance of payments widened in August to EUR 426.5 million. In July, the deficit represented EUR 322.8 million. In a yearly comparison, the results in the eighth month of this year considerably worsened, as a year ago, there was a surplus on the current account of the balance of payments of EUR 15.6 million.
Behind the negative result in August was in particular the trade balance, which posted a gap of EUR 200.1 million. Compared with July, the trade balance deficit was deeper by EUR 112 million. In August of last year, the trade balance posted a surplus of nearly EUR 217 million.
The other components of the current account reported a negative balance in the eighth month as well. The balance of receipts ended with a deficit of EUR 108.3 million, the balance of current transfers with a deficit of EUR 95.1 million and the balance of services with a deficit of EUR 23 million.
The central bank commented that the monthly deepening of the deficit on the current account was influenced in particular by a wider gap in the trade balance and the balance of receipts, as the result of lower interest revenue from portfolio investments. On the other hand, the improved balance of services and the balance of current services slowed down the increase in the deficit.
In August, the dynamics of the year-on-year growth of exports slowed further, namely by 3.8 points m/m to 19.9 percent. On the contrary, the growth rate of imports accelerated for the second month in a row from 27.1 percent in July to 35.7 percent in August. The achieved trade balance in August was worse than the central bank’s expectations, as the result of higher volume of imports, the central bank concluded.
SITA
