Mauritius Trade Gap Widened to 6.9 Billion Rupees in May

July 20, 2011, 3:32 AM EDTBy Kamlesh Bhuckory

(Updates with export, import figures in third paragraph.)

July 20 (Bloomberg) — Mauritius’s trade gap widened in May from a year earlier to 6.9 billion rupees ($244 million) as fuel costs surged.

The deficit increased from a revised 5.5 billion liras in May 2010, the Port Louis-based agency said on its website today. The initial estimate for that month’s deficit had been 6.3 billion rupees.

Fuel imports jumped 69 percent to 3.44 billion rupees in May this year, out of a total import bill of 12.65 billion rupees, the agency said. Exports were 5.77 billion rupees.

The trade gap for the January-May period was 32.4 billion rupees, the statistics office said. It forecast a deficit for the year of 83 billion rupees on May 31.

–Editors: Ben Holland, Karl Maier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at gbell16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-07-20/mauritius-trade-gap-widened-to-6-9-billion-rupees-in-may.html