Brunei recorded a 5.9 percent drop in trade balance last year as growth in imports outpaced exports, according to government statistics released on Sunday.

Data from the December edition of the Brunei Darussalam International Trade Statistics showed that the sultanate recorded a trade surplus of 3.250 billion Brunei dollars (2.41 billion U.S. dollars) for 2018, from 3.455 billion Brunei dollars the previous year.

Exports went up 15 percent to 8.872 billion Brunei dollars from 7.712 billion Brunei dollars, but its gains were muted by the 32 percent increase in imports, to 5.622 billion Brunei dollars from 4.257 billion Brunei dollars the prior year.

For the month of December alone, Brunei posted a trade surplus of 261.8 million Brunei dollars, down 27.2 percent compared with the the same month in the previous year. (1 U.S. dollar = 1.35 Brunei dollars)