May 31 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 4.6% year-on-year in the first quarter from 6.0% in the preceding three-month period, the statistics office said on Thursday, citing non-seasonally adjusted data.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, Slovenia's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.6% over the previous quarter and grew by 5.0% over the first quarter of 2017, following an increase of 1.9% quarter-on-quarter and 6.0% on the year in the October-December period of 2017, the statistics office said in a statement.
Domestic expenditure increased by 5.3% in the first quarter of 2018, which is the same increase as in the first quarter of 2017 and the highest growth after 2008.
The final consumption expenditure grew by 2.6%, of which household consumption expenditure increased by 3.4%, as much as in the previous quarter.
In the first quarter of 2018, imports grew faster than exports. Imports increased by 8.7%, of which imports of goods increased by 9.2% and imports of services by 5.5%. Exports increased by 7.4%, of which exports of goods by 7.7% and exports of services by 6.2%.
Higher growth of imports than exports resulted in somewhat lower external trade balance. Their contribution to GDP growth was negative - by 0.2 of a percentage point.