BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Switzerland's foreign trade surplus increased in the first quarter on recovering exports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed on Thursday.
The trade balance registered a surplus of CHF 8.6 billion, which was above CHF 8.1 billion logged in the final quarter of 2023. In the same period last year, the surplus was CHF 8.4 billion.
In real terms, exports rebounded 0.6 percent, following a 0.5 percent drop a quarter ago. At the same time, the decline in imports softened to 0.2 percent from 0.7 percent.
In March, the trade surplus rose to CHF 2.8 billion from CHF 2.3 billion in February, data showed. In real terms, both exports and imports declined by 1.7 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, from a month earlier.
Another report from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed that watch exports decreased sharply by 16.1 percent on a yearly basis to CHF 2.0 billion in March. As a result, the decrease for the first quarter as a whole was 6.3 percent compared with last year.
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