Mauritius faced a larger trade deficit in June from a year earlier, as the gap between imports and exports from the island economy rose 23% to Rs 6.29 billion for the month, according to data released by Statistics Mauritius on Friday.
Besides, the difference between imports and exports for June 2014 was also higher by 22.1% compared to May 2014.
The reason for the widening gap between imports and exports was that imports climbed a much steeper 11.6% to Rs 14.80 billion while exports inched up just by 4.45 to Rs 8.51 billion, said the statistics office in a statement.
Coming to imports, for the month of June 2014, total imports rose by 10.4% compared to May 2014 and by 11.6% compared to June 2013.
The main items that contributed to the rise in imports from a year-ago were machinery and transport items, whose overseas purchases rose a whopping 47.88% to Rs 3.27 billion, and food and live animal imports, which also showed a double digit rise by 11.42% to Rs 2.36 billion.
Compared to the month of May 2014, imports climbed up due to a rise in overseas purchases of mineral fuels and lubricants, which rose a towering 55.73% to Rs 3.55 billion, followed by food and live animal imports which rose by 3.19% to Rs 2.36 billion.
Exports, on their part, increased by 3.2% in June 2014 compared to the previous month and by 4.4% compared to June 2013.
The main item that was responsible for the slow rise in exports was the category of food and live animals, whose outbound sales dipped by 18.9% from a year ago and by 6.5% from the previous month, to hit a low of Rs 2.15 billion.
On the positive side, exports of manufactured goods classified chiefly by material showed robust, double-digit growth of 29.69% over the year-ago period and of 12.75% over May 2014, to notch up outbound sales of Rs 760 million for June 2014.
Moreover, international sales of miscellaneous manufactured goods were also on the upturn, rising 8.79% over a year-ago and 8.51% over the previous month, to reach Rs 2.83 billion for June 2014.
Geography-wise, United Kingdom with 12.4% share, UAE at 12.0%, USA at 11.7% and France at 10.4% were the major exports destinations for the island economy in June 2014.
Meanwhile, Mauritius mainly imported from India, which commanded a 26.2 % share, China at 16.2%, France at 7% and South Africa at 6.2%.
Caption: The main items that contributed to the rise in imports from a year-ago were machinery and transport items, whose overseas purchases rose a whopping 47.88% to Rs 3.27 billion, and food and live animal imports, which also showed double digit growth of 11.42% to Rs 2.36 billion. (Image: Anonscope)
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