Releasing fresh figures on Monday, the Statistics Office said the recorded values of exports and imports in October were the highest this year as well as in recent years.

The export-import ratio stood at 98%. The EUR 59.3m deficit was mostly due to increased imports from non-EU countries.

Almost 80% of Slovenia's merchandise trade was generated in the EU market; 78% of exports and 76.5% of imports.

Exports to EU member states rose by 12.5% year-on-year to EUR 2.25bn and imports from there increased by 13% to EUR 2.25bn, with a trade deficit of EUR 1.5m.

Exports to non-EU markets rose by 3.9% year-on-year to EUR 634.6m, whereas imports soared by 44.7% to EUR 692.3m, opening a deficit of EUR 57.8m.

In the first ten months of the year Slovenia's exports grew at an annual rate of 9.8% to EUR 25.8bn and imports increased by 11.7% to EUR 25.4bn.

External trade surplus in the ten month period amounted to EUR 390.1m and the export/import ratio was 101.5%.

The data and trends indicate that foreign trade's contribution to Slovenia's economic growth is set to decrease, with domestic components contributing more.