Sri Lanka's trade deficit has widened to 240 million U.S. dollars in January 2006, the Central Bank said Monday.

But a growth in private remittances of 26 percent had helped containing the current account deficit, the bank said.

The country's exports too had declined by 14.8 percent to 440 million dollars in January compared with the previous month's export earnings worth 627 million U.S. dollars.

On the imports, the bank said that the sector had recorded a 17. 5 percent growth to 680 million US dollars. Expenditure on petroleum imports had also increased by 4.3 percent in January.

Since recording a negative economic growth in 2001, Sri Lanka has seen continuous positive growth on the back of the February 2002 ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The economy is projected to grow 6 percent in 2006.

The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are to meet in Geneva next month after their initial meeting on Feb. 22 and 23. The talks are aimed at stabilizing the fragile truce.

Source: Xinhua