BRATISLAVA, April 25, (WEBNOVINY) — The surplus on Slovakia’s current account of the balance of payments increased in the second month of this year. Based on preliminary data released by the National Bank of Slovakia, the surplus on the current account in February reached EUR 363.4 million, which was EUR 44 million in January. In annualized terms, February’s surplus on the current account rose by nearly EUR 75 million.
Foreign trade remains the driving force of the current account balance. Trade balance showed a surplus of EUR 347.7 million over February. It was nearly EUR 84 million higher than in January and over EUR 170 million higher than a year ago. Also the balance of services was in a surplus at EUR 38.6 million, while the balance of current transfers showed surplus of EUR 75.7 million. On the contrary, the gap of the balance of receipts achieved EUR 98.6 million, which was a reduction by EUR 43 million.
Behind the m/m increase in the current account surplus was in particular a m/m increase in surplus of the trade balance and a change of a deficit to a surplus in the balance of current transfers, related to higher drawing of EU funds. Furthermore, the other items of the current account contributed to the improvement in monthly terms, too, says the central bank in its commentary on the February development.
In the second month of the year, the dynamics of exports was at a similar level as a month ago, when it grew 8.7 percent compared with the same period of last year. This meant a month-on-month acceleration by 0.4 percentage points. Growth of imports decelerated, when their growth was 5 percent in February, while in the previous month the import dynamics achieved 8.2 percent.
After last month’s acceleration, the dynamics of imports again lags behind the dynamics of exports. Compared with January the level of imports and exports increased, which, however was associated with a seasonal development, said the central bank. This development resulted in a monthly increase in the trade balance surplus, the bank added.
SITA
