With a slackening of India''s export growth, its India''s trade deficit widened to $5.68 billion in December 2006 from $2.69 billion in December 2005.

The deficit stood at $6.20 billion in November, $6.21 billion in October and $5.33 billion in September.

According to the government the trade gap widened to $41.72 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year commencing April 2006, from $31.76 billion in the same period last year.

Exports in December rose 7.75 per cent from a year earlier to $9.90 billion, while imports rose an annual 31.12 per cent to $15.58 billion according to provisional data.

Analysts said the trade deficit was not yet a concern but the slowing down of export growth would be looked at carefully.

Exports in the April-December period were $89.49 billion, up from $73.36 billion in the same period last year.The full-year''s export target is $126 billion, a rise of 22.3 per cent over the previous year.

Imports in the first nine months of the year were $131.21 billion an increase of 24.8 per cent from $105.11 billion last year. Non-oil importswere up 31.81 per cent in December to $10.76 billion while in the April-December period they rose 18.67 per cent to $87.40 billion.

Oil imports in December rose 29.58 per cent from the previous year''s $4.82 billion, while in the April-December period, they grew an annual 39.23 per cent to $43.82 billion.