SLOVAKIA's foreign trade figures for September came as a bad surprise to analysts. The monthly foreign trade deficit stood at Sk9.5 billion while the markets had expected the figure to be no more than Sk2-3 billion.
Analysts believe that a steep increase in imports is behind the September figures.
However, despite the poor results from September, the overall nine-month foreign trade deficit stood at Sk63.6 billion thanks to the revised August data.
Analysts expect improvement to come in the last quarter of the year.
"PSA Peugeot started mass production in May and plans to produce and export 60,000 vehicles this year," ČSOB bank analyst Marek Gábriš told the Hospodárske noviny daily.
In addition to PSA, South Korean carmaker Kia should also launch serial production at its new plant near Žilina in December this year.
