A surplus in external trade was recorded year-on-year for January for the seventh consecutive time and it now reached the highest January level with EUR 207.4 million.

Slovenia recorded a slight drop in external trade with EU countries, as exports to these countries decreased by 0.8% and imports from them by 2.2% compared to January 2019.

The value of exported goods reached EUR 2 billion and of imported goods EUR 1.9 billion. Slovenia generated 68% of exports and 68.9% of imports in trade with EU countries.

Meanwhile, both exports and imports with non-EU countries were up, by 46.4% to EUR 954.5 million and by 26.5% to EUR 862.6 million, respectively.

The country generated a surplus of EUR 91.9 million in trade with non-EU countries, mostly on account of a rise in trade with Switzerland.

For quite a while, trade in pharmaceutical products with Switzerland has been on the rise since the Swiss pharma giant Novartis opened a logistics and distribution hub at Ljubljana airport serving this part of Europe.