STA, 9 June 2020 - Slovenia's exports dropped by 28.8% to EUR 2.01 billion in April compared to April 2019, the sharpest contraction since 2008, while imports plummeted by 41.2% to EUR 1.86 billion, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday. The trend was driven by a decline in car trade, which shrank by about three-quarters compared to last April.
Road vehicles are the third most traded group of products, preceded only by medical and pharmaceutical products, and electric machines and devices.
The surplus in external trade in goods reached EUR 149.3 million, which is the highest surplus in the last ten years, and the export/import ratio was at 108%.
Exports to EU countries amounted to EUR 1.24 billion, which is down 41.4% over April 2019, and imports to the EU topped EUR 1.18 billion, which is a 45.4% drop compared to last April.
Trade with all main foreign trade partners from the EU decreased, most notably with Italy and Germany. But the latter remains Slovenia's most important trade partner.
Exports to non-EU countries were up 9.3% to EUR 766.5 million, while imports from them were down 32.1% to EUR 680.4 million.
The year-on-year growth of exports to this group of countries was the result of higher exports to Switzerland, which thus became Slovenia's second most important trade partner.
In the first four months of 2020, exports decreased by 2.6% year on year to EUR 10.79 billion and imports by 9.4% to EUR 10.21 billion. External trade surplus in the January-April period topped EUR 585.8 million and the export/import ratio was 105.7%.
Employment outlook for Q3 worst since 2013
STA, 9 June 2020 - Employment company Manpower Group has presented a grim employment outlook for the third quarter of the year. In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic in Slovenia, the outlook presented on Tuesday is the worst since 2013. The share of employers planning layoffs surpasses those planning to hire by seven percentage points.
The survey showed that 18% of employers plan to lay off people between July and the end September, while 11% intend to expand their teams.
Seasonably adjusted, the gap between those planning to fire and those intending to hire amounts one percentage point.
Meanwhile, 64% do not plan to make changes to their workforce, Manpower data suggest.
The net hiring outlook for the next quarter is 5 percentage points lower than for this quarter, and 23 percentage points lower than for the same period last year.
A drop in hiring is expected by employers in five out of the seven sectors included in the survey, with the prospects being the worst in hospitality. Here, the hiring gap is as high as 13 percentage points.
The only two segments with positive hiring prospects are the sector of financial and business services and what is classified by Manpower as other production sectors.
In terms of company size, prospects are poorest among medium-sized companies, where net employment outlook is at -14%.
Employment outlook has deteriorated for all regions, with central Slovenia and the southeast faring worst. In central Slovenia the hiring gap reached 5 percentage points, while in the southeast it dropped to 1 percentage point.
The global survey included 388 Slovenian companies among a total of 34,600 companies in 44 countries.
