LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), December 9 (SeeNews) - Slovenia posted a trade surplus of 888.5 million euro ($943.4 million) in the first ten months of 2016, up from 708.9 million euro surplus a year earlier, as exports rose faster than imports, the statistics office said.

Exports increased 3.6% year-on-year, reaching 20.7 billion euro, while imports rose 2.4% to 19.8 billion euro, the statistics office said in a statement on Thursday.

In October alone, Slovenia recorded a trade surplus of 95.9 million euro, as exports fell 0.7% on the year to 2.2 billion euro, while imports dropped 0.5% to 2.1 billion euro.

The European Union was Slovenia’s main trading partner in October, absorbing 1.6 billion euro of the country's exports and providing 1.7 billion euro of its imports.

Slovenia ended 2015 with a trade surplus of 635.1 million euro, up from 355.5 million euro in 2014, as exports climbed 4.4% to 23.9 billion euro, while imports rose 3.2% to 23.3 billion euro.

($=0.941942 euro)