Sri Lanka records higher trade deficit

COLOMBO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua): Sri Lanka's trade deficit widened in the first nine months of 2006 to 2.6 billion US dollars, while the country's overall balance of payments had registered a surplus of 49 million dollars, the country's central bank said late Tuesday.

The bank said that the cumulative exports in the first nine months of 2006 grew by 8.8 per cent to 5.0 billion dollars from the same period of 2005, while the imports grew by 17.4 per cent to 7.6 billion dollars.