PORT LOUIS (Reuters) – Mauritius said on Friday its trade deficit widened 22.1 percent to 6.91 billion rupees ($195.47 million) in May from the same period a year earlier, hit by a dip in exports of machinery and transport equipment.

The Indian Ocean island nation’s earnings from exports fell 6.5 percent from a year before to 7.46 billion rupees in May, the government’s statistics office said in a statement. The United States was the main destination for Mauritius’s exports, followed by France and Britain.

Foreign sales of machinery and transport equipment declined to 687 million rupees in May from 1.19 billion rupees in the same period last year.

Total imports rose 5.4 percent from a year before to 14.37 billion rupees in May. Some 20.3 percent of imports in the period came from China.

($1 = 35.3500 Mauritius rupees)

(Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Catherine Evans)