SLOVAKIA’s foreign trade showed a surplus of €1.257 billion in 2009. Exports dropped 19.9 percent on an annual basis to €39.683 billion and imports decreased by 23.6 percent to €38.426 billion.
According to preliminary data released by the Statistics Office on February 11, foreign trade reported a deficit of €56.6 million in December alone, down €310.2 million from a year ago.
Exports increased by 10.7 percent to €3.220 billion in the last month of 2009. Imports amounted to €3.276 billion, showing no change from the previous year. The foreign trade surplus in November 2009 amounted to €150.9 million, with imports going down by 9.3 percent to €3.711 billion.
Exports shrank by 0.7 percent to €3.862 billion. Foreign trade is the core channel through which the downturn in global demand has affected Slovakia.
This significantly affected the contraction of Slovakia's economy, as proven by last year's development with a year-on-year drop in exports of up to 30 percent.
A decrease in foreign demand, the main driving force of Slovak industry in recent years, was one of the main factors behind the downturn in the Slovak economy.
