Slovakia’s foreign trade ended the eighth consecutive month with a surplus. Based on preliminary data of the Slovak Statistics Office (ŠÚ), exports in August exceeded imports by €261 million, and thus the trade surplus widened further compared to €170.9 million reported for July.
Also the cumulative surplus in foreign trade continued widening as from the beginning of the year to the end of August 2013 and already amounts to €3.35 billion. It is only about €240 million less than the surplus for the whole of last year, and the surplus for eight months exceeded the result for the same period from a year ago by almost €1.1 billion.
Slovakia has managed to maintain a positive trade balance despite the continued slowdown of exports, the SITA newswire wrote. Exports fell for the third month in a row in August by 2.2 percent to €4.843 billion. Imports, however, fell even more, by 6.8 percent – to €4.582 billion. On a cumulative basis from the beginning of 2013, exports from Slovakia increased year-on-year by 2.3 percent to €41.689 billion, while imports decreased by 0.4 percent to €38.34 billion. Before the economic downturn of recent years, Slovakia mostly used to have a trade deficit. Over the past three years, its foreign trade rarely resulted in a monthly deficit and Slovakia has reported a cumulative annual trade surplus since 2009, SITA wrote. In 2011, according to revised figures of the Statistics Office, it was nearly €1 billion and last year a record €3.6 billion.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
