Israel's trade deficit narrowed in August for a ninth consecutive month as hi-tech exports rose although imports continued to fall albeit at a slower pace, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported on Sunday.

The trade deficit in August stood at $1.2 billion as imports of goods amounted to $4.4 billion and exports of goods reached $3.2 billion. In the first eight months of the year the country's trade deficit narrowed to a monthly average of $500 million compared with $1.1 billion during the same period last year

"Trade figures in August, were strongly influenced by changes in the value of the dollar against other currencies in which import and export transactions are conducted," said CBS economists. "In August, the US dollar strengthened by 0.2 percent against the euro after weakening by 0.5% in the previous month and by 0.9% against the British pound, and 0.9% against the Japanese yen."

Exports of goods totaled $3.2 billion in August, of which 89% were manufactured exports and 10% were diamond exports. Trend figures showed that in the months June to August, exports of goods, not including diamonds, leaped by 25.6% in annual terms after falling by 0.4% in the March to May period.

The CBS figures found that hi-tech exports, which represent 51% of industrial exports of goods, rose by an annualized 21.7% compared with 20.3% in the months March to May.

Imports of goods, stood at $4.4 billion in August out of which 37% were generated from raw materials (not including diamonds), 16% from machinery and transport tools, 16% from consumption goods and 31% from diamonds, aircraft and ship materials. CBS economists added that trend figures in seasonally adjusted terms pointed to a slowdown in the rate of the decline of imports of goods, excluding diamonds, ships and aircraft over recent months. In the months June to August imports of goods grew at an annualized rate of 10.4% after falling at an annualized rate of 24.6% in the months March to May.

In the three months to August this year, the imports of raw materials, not including diamonds, rose by an annualized rate of 15.9% after falling by an annualized rate of 23.6% in the months March to May. During the same period imports of raw and rough diamonds dropped to a volume of $2.6 billion. from $6.7 billion. during the corresponding period last year. The decline in the import of investment goods (excluding ships and planes) narrowed to an annualized 7.2% in June-August from 41.2% in March-May.