BRATISLAVA, May 9, (WEBNOVINY) — Foreign trade continues the trend of previous months when it showed a surplus again in March. According to the Statistics Office data, exports exceeded imports by EUR 389.9 million and increased EUR 48.7 million from February. The March surplus was higher by more than EUR 200 million from a year ago.
Slovakia’s foreign trade reported cumulative surplus of EUR 1.037 billion for the first three months of this year. Compared with the first quarter of last year cumulative surplus grew by over EUR 430 million. Overall exports of goods and services from Slovakia in the third month of this year reached EUR 5.287 billion. This is 5.3 percent more than in March of last year. On the other hand, imports to Slovakia in March grew at a slower pace when they surged on an annual basis by 1.3 percent to be at EUR 4.897 billion. For Q1 of this year total exports swelled 7.3 percent to EUR 14.442 billion and total imports went up 4.3 percent to EUR 13.405 billion.
After a period of prevailing trade deficits resulting from the global crisis, Slovakia has returned to a trade balance surplus. Over the past three years, its foreign trade reported a deficit in only four months and the country has been reporting cumulative annual trade surpluses since 2009. Slovakia achieved a record trade surplus last year, when exports exceeded imports by over 2.4 billion euros.
SITA
