Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of Mauritius reveals that the nation’s trade deficit grew 15.7% in Q3 2016, compared to Q3 2015. Compared to the previous quarter of 2016, it soared 11.7% to 21.7 billion Mauritian rupees ($590 million).

The gap should widen more before the year ends, according to the institution. “Based on quarterly trends and the various sources of data we collected, we believe that before 2016 ends, exports will stand at 88 billion rupees, against 165.7 billion rupees for imports. Subsequently, trade deficit should amount 79.5 billion rupees ($2.18 billion),” it said in a statement.

In the third quarter of the year, exports were impaired by lower sales of machinery and transportation equipment. They slumped by around 47.1% pulling exports down by 12.1%. Imports also decreased in that quarter, to a lesser extent however (-0.2%).