Ljubljana - Slovenia's GDP grew at 5% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020. Just like in quarter two, it was largely fuelled by household consumption and gross capital formation, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

The final consumption expenditure of households rose by 9.3%, with high rises recorded in all types of household consumption except for car purchases.

Gross fixed capital formation increased by 9.6%, with the largest growth recorded in gross fixed capital formation in other machinery and equipment (22.8%). Changes of inventories also increased and had a positive impact on growth.

On the other hand, external trade balance had a negative impact on growth in quarter three, the same as in quarter two, as imports rose more than exports, by 19.9% and 10.6%, respectively.

Seasonally adjusted, the country's GDP increased by 4.8% from last year's July-September quarter and by 1.3% from this year's April-June quarter.