COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's trade deficit in July widened 55.2 percent to $890.6 million from $573.7 million a year earlier, mainly due to higher imports of fuel, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

July exports gained 11.1 percent from a year earlier to $954.7 million, while imports jumped 28.8 percent to $1.85 billion.

For the first seven months of 2014, the trade deficit narrowed 11.5 percent to $4.44 billion from $5.01 billion a year earlier.