COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's trade deficit narrowed by 47.9 percent to $393.4 million in May from $754.9 million a year earlier, mainly due to lower imports, central bank data showed on Monday.

May exports rose 11.1 percent from a year earlier to $882.1 million, while imports fell 17.6 percent to $1.28 billion.

For the first five months of 2014, the trade deficit narrowed more than 19 percent to $3.01 billion from $3.74 billion a year earlier.