STA, 8 December 2019 - International trade in goods and services remained Slovenia's most important cross-border economic activity in 2018. The country was very well integrated in international merchandise trade, but fared worse in services, show the latest data released by the Statistics Office.
The value of exports and imports of goods and services rose annually by 9.3% and 10.4%, respectively. The stock of inward foreign direct investment was up 8.6% year-on-year.
The share of exports and imports of goods and services in the GDP reached 85.4% and 77.1%, respectively, putting Slovenia 5th and 7th among EU countries.
Only Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland and Slovakia had higher shares of exports of goods and services.
Slovenia's integration in international trade measured by the indicator of trade integration of goods, by far exceeded the EU average.
Rising by 2.4 points to 66.8% of its GDP, the country's rate of integration in merchandise trade was below only Slovakia and Hungary.
The country did a bit worse in the integration of services in international trade; with a 14.4% of GDP it placed 13th in the EU, yet still above the EU average of 12.4%.
An OECD study on foreign or domestic value added shares in countries' exports provides an additional insight into Slovenia's high level of globalisation and dependence on international trade.
Throughout the entire period covered by the study, Slovenia's shares of the foreign value added in exports were higher compared to the OECD and EU-28 averages.
In 2016, the last reference year in the study, its share of foreign value added in exports was 31.6%, far above the OECD average of 7.1% and the EU average of 11.6%.
Foreign direct investment in Slovenia at the end of 2018 amounted to EUR 15.2 billion, up 8.6% year on year, accounting for 33.1% of GDP, up 0.6 points.
The country's direct investment abroad totalled EUR 6.1 billion, up 1.6%, accounting for 13.2% of GDP, down 0.6 points.
You can dig deeper into the data at SURS great website
