Bulgaria's trade deficit at the end of April 2007 was 4.72 billion leva compared to 3.28 billion leva for the same period of 2006, says the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The increase was 43.7 per cent on an annual basis. In April 2007 alone, the trade deficit was 1.12 billion leva, investor.bg reported.

Exports (FOB, Freight on Board) in the end of April were 7.56 billion leva compared to 7.17 billion leva in 2006 and import (CIF, Cost Insurance and Freight) were 12.28 billion leva compared to 10.46 billion leva at the end of April 2006.

Foreign trade data is still insufficiently precise, said Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and NSI. They said the new way of collecting information was still not effective, which meant that export growth was being underestimated.

Despite export underestimation data showed that it grew in the first four months of 2007. The only exclusion is the group of mineral fuels and similar products which registered export decrease of nearly 40 per cent to 775.6 million leva.

The largest import increase was registered within soft drinks, alcohol and tobacco products, more than 220 per cent year-on-year.