BRATISLAVA, May 22 (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen's Slovak unit said on Thursday its sales jumped 35 percent to 30.6 billion crowns in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.
Volkswagen Slovakia, which accounts for around 15 percent of the ex-Soviet satellite country's sales abroad, said exports in the first quarter were 30.5 billion crowns, while imports amounted to 19.5 billion crowns.
The company's resulting 11-billion-crown first-quarter trade surplus represented a 72 percent increase over that from the first three months of 2002.
Volkswagen said it had produced 46,406 cars, 84,781 transmission units and 4.85 million transmission components in the period. The vast majority of its production goes to exports.
A main driver behind the spike in exports has been the production of Volkswagen's four-wheel-drive Touareg model, launched last autumn.
The increase in the company's exports has also led to a narrowing in Slovakia's once troublesome foreign-trade balance.