SLOVAKIA’S foreign trade surplus continued in the positive trend of previous months as the Statistics Office reported that exports exceeded imports by €389.9 million in March and that the surplus had increased by €48.7 million from February. The March 2012 trade surplus was more than €200 million higher than in March 2011, the SITA newswire reported.
Slovakia accumulated a foreign trade surplus of €1.037 billion during the first three months of 2012, €430 million more than in the first quarter of 2011. First quarter exports totalled €14.442 billion, up 7.3 percent and imports increased by 4.3 percent to €13.405 billion.
Exports of Slovak goods and services in March reached €5.287 billion, an increase of 5.3 percent from the same month in 2011. Imports to Slovakia in March, at €4.897 billion, were 1.3 percent higher than in March 2011.
Slovakia has returned to a surplus position in its trade account after recording several monthly deficits during the global economic crisis. But during the past three years, Slovakia has had a foreign trade deficit in only four months and the country has recorded annual trade surpluses since 2009.
Last year Slovakia recorded its largest trade surplus ever when exports exceeded imports by over €2.4 billion, SITA wrote.
