Slovakia's exports down 6.3 percent year-on-year in March

Slovakia's foreign trade produced a surplus of €308 million in March 2016, which was 30 percent lower than in the same period of last year, according to the Slovak Statistics Office. Total exports amounted to €5.7 billion in March, which represented a decrease of 6.3 percent year-on-year, while imports also fell -by 4.4 percent to €5.4 billion. "Foreign trade figures for March 2016 are disappointing. The surplus lagged behind the average market expectations by more than €100 million. Growing household consumption and recovering private investments will pull imports upwards. This growth should already be fully compensated by growing exports that should be driven by the cyclical recovery of European economies", said Ľubomír Koršňák, an analyst from UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia.