Ljubljana, 31 August (STA) - Driven by external trade, Slovenia's economy expanded by 3.8% in the second quarter of the year over the same period a year ago, while the seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 4.3% year-on-year and by 0.8% from the previous quarter, the Statistics Office reported.

The growth in domestic consumption in the second quarter slowed to 2.3% y/y. Final consumption expenditure increased by 2.2% and gross fixed capital formation by 2.9%.

The slowdown in gross fixed capital formation was to a large extent the result of changes in stocks, which had a negative impact on GDP growth.

Households spending growth slowed down to 1.1%, mostly due to slower growth in daily spending.

Gross fixed capital formation increased by 8.2%; construction investment was up by 11.8% and gross fixed capital formation in other machinery and equipment rose by 5.2%.

External demand continued to reflect positively on the economic growth. Exports rose by 9.3% and imports increased by 8.3%. The external trade surplus contributed 1.7 percentage points to the economic growth.

The number of people in employment increased by 3% y/y to 1,013,618. Most were employed in manufacturing, followed by construction, trade, and professional, scientific and technological activities.

The Statistics Office slightly downgraded its estimate for the economic growth in the first quarter to 4.5% from 4.6%, so that seasonally-unadjusted GDP is now estimated to have increased by 4.2% in the first half of the year.

The office upgraded its estimate of last year's growth by 0.1 percentage points from February to 4.9% in real terms. The latest estimate puts GDP at current prices for 2017 at EUR 43bn.