Exports amounted to EUR 23.9bn and imports were at EUR 23.2bn, the Statistics Office said in a preliminary release on Tuesday.

Germany, Italy, Austria, Croatia and France remained Slovenia's biggest trading partners.

Medicines and cars were the biggest export categories, while imports were dominated by oil derivatives and cars.

In both imports and exports cars recorded the biggest year-on-year increase in value.

The EU has for years been the principal market for Slovenian goods, and 2015 is no exception.

EU member states accounted for almost 77% of all exports and more than 80% of total imports.

Despite bullish whole-year data, the figures for December show trade slowing down gradually.

In December alone exports rose 2.3% and imports were up 7.8%, with the trade shortfall at EUR 64m.