Slovakia had better foreign trade results in the first half of 2018 than it did during the same period last year, the Slovak Statistics Office reported on Thursday.
In the January-June period, exports grew by 6.5 percent year-on-year to 39.35 billion euros (46.6 billion U.S. dollars) and imports rose by 6.4 percent year-on-year to 37.51 billion euros.
Slovakia thus reported a trade surplus of 1.849 billion euros in the first half of this year, up by 159.9 million euros from the same period last year.
There is, however, a growing demand for more imports in the future, analysts said.
"The growing industry is putting increased pressure on imports of material and goods for production," said Lubomir Korsnak, UniCredit Bank analyst for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
"Strong domestic demand, either the import of technologies for a new automotive plant, Jaguar Land Rover, or the higher industrial supplies before the start of the plant's production, might again put pressure on imports in the upcoming months," Korsnak said.
Korsnak also saw risks in a potential trade war between the European Unio and the United States, which Slovakia could feel it in its automotive industry.
