Overall exports stood at €5.084 billion in January, which amounts to an annual fall of 2.1 percent, the ŠÚ said. Imports rose by 0.6 percent y-o-y to €4.776 billion.
In 2014, Slovakia’s foreign trade recorded a surplus of €4.649 billion, up by €416.3 million from 2013, the TASR newswire quoted the ŠÚ as reporting. Goods worth €64.801 billion were exported from Slovakia last year, up 1 percent on the year. Total imports amounted to €60.152 billion, an annual rise of 0.4 percent.
Annual increases were seen in exports to Germany (7 percent), the United Kingdom (15.6 percent), France (0.2 percent), Italy (1.3 percent), the Netherlands (9.8 percent), Spain (17.1 percent) and Romania (0.9 percent). Exports fell to the Czech Republic (-4.3 percent), Poland (-1.8 percent), Austria (-0.3 percent), Hungary (-2.8 percent), Russia (-18.5 percent) and China (-13.9 percent).
Imports rose from China (4.5 percent), Hungary (5.6 percent), Italy (0.8 percent), and France (6.7 percent), while falls in imports were seen with Germany (- 5.4 percent), the Czech Republic (- 3.7 percent), Russia (- 20 percent), South Korea (- 15.3 percent), Poland (- 1.3 percent) and Austria (- 0.4 percent).
With respect to Slovakia’s main business partners, the biggest surpluses were with Germany (€5.385 billion), the United Kingdom (€2.637 billion), Austria (€2.437 billion), Poland (€2.337 billion), the Czech Republic (€2.010 billion), France (€1.402 billion), Hungary (€1.138 billion), Italy (€1.043 billion) and the Netherlands (€911.3 billion}.
The biggest deficits were measured in trade with South Korea (-€4.271 billion), China (-€3.270 billion), Russia (-€2.836 billion), Japan (-€661.4 million), Malaysia (-€449.2 million), Taiwan (-€426.2 million), Ukraine (-€228.8 million) and India (-€202.2 million).