ISLAMABAD, June 4: Trade deficit has widened by 141.49 per cent to $4.842 billion during the July-April period of current fiscal year as against $2.005 billion over the same period last year. The Economic Survey Report 2004-05 released on Saturday claimed that the trade deficit was likely to remain high during the next two months (May-June) of the current fiscal year.

The trade deficit was attributed to an exceptional strong growth of 41.5 per cent in the non-food and non-oil imports, which basically represent machinery, equipments, raw material. The oil prices, the report says were also very high, which have also caused imports to grow much faster. However, excluding oil import bill, trade deficit stood at only $1.501 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2004-05. Among the other factors of increase in the trade deficit was the rise in import prices of certain commodities in 2004-05.