SLOVAKIA ended April with its trade balance once more in the red, defying rosier expectations by analysts. The trade-balance gap stood at Sk5.76 billion (€190 million) for April, according to preliminary data published by the Slovak Statistic Office on June 11.
The office also revised the March deficit to Sk1.7 billion. This year's cumulative trade-balance surplus thus narrowed from Sk6.26 billion to Sk507 million in April. Compared with the January-April period in 2007, this year's cumulative surplus is Sk5 billion lower.
Exports in April totalled Sk134 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.2 percent. Total imports rose by 27.3 percent to Sk140 billion. In the first four months of 2008, overall exports of goods rose by a 16 percent year-on-year, to Sk516.7 billion; in the same period, overall imports grew by 17.3 percent, to Sk516.2 billion.
