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Colombia's

foreign trade

deficit up

BOGOTA: Colombia's foreign trade deficit rose 58.72 percent during the first two months of 1996 over the same period last year, the National Statistics Department (DANE) said.

It said the deficit rose 57.5 percent with the United States, Colombia's leading trading partner. Exports during the two-month period rose a meager 1.15 percent over 1995 while imports jumped 12.1 percent.

Measured on an annual accumulated basis, from March 1995 through February 1996, the trade deficit stood at 24.88 percent.

DANE did not give trade figures for March, but an earlier report from the Foreign Trade Institute said imports for the month had fallen 8.1 percent over March 1995.-Reuter