Greece's trade deficit rose by 11.4 percent year-on-year in April to 2.61 billion euros (3.53 billion U.S. dollars), the National Statistics Service said on Monday.

The statistics service said in a report that excluding fuels the country's trade deficit was up 24.3 percent or by 442.3 million euros (598.9 million dollars) in April.

The value of exports totaled 1.366 billion euros (1.849 billion dollars) in April, up 13.7 percent from 1.202 billion euros (1.627billion dollars) in April 2006. When fuel exports were excluded, exports rose by 11.2 percent.

The value of imports grew by 12.2 percent to 3.976 billion euros (5.383 billion dollars) in April, from 3.545 billion euros (4.799 billion dollars) in April 2006. Excluding fuels, imports grew by 19.5 percent.

The statistics service said that the trade deficit grew by 12.8percent in the January-April period to 11.478 billion euros (15.541 billion dollars) from the same period last year. Excluding fuels, the trade deficit was up 25.9 percent.

Exports rose 14.2 percent in the first four months of the year to 5.798 billion euros (7.850 billion dollars) while imports rose by 13.2 percent to 17.276 billion euros (23.391 billion dollars).