OSLO (AFP) - Trade surplus slipped five percent last month after lower oil and gas exports.

• Norway's sovereign fund swells in value

Norway's trade surplus slipped five percent in July compared to the same month a year ago, largely pushed down by lower exports from the country's important oil and gas sector, Statistics Norway said Monday.

The Scandinavian country last month saw its trade surplus tick in at 28.4 billion kroner (3.6 billion euros, 4.6 billion dollars), down from 29.9 billion kroner a year earlier, the statistics agency said.

"The decline in trade surplus compared with July last year is explained by both higher imports and reduced exports in July this year," it said in a statement.

Compared to July 2009, overall exports were down 1.0 percent at 61.7 billion kroner, while imports were up 3.0 percent at 33.3 billion.

Norway, one of the world's leading oil and gas exporters, was especially hit by a clear fall in the volume of natural gas exports, with income from gas sales abroad falling 6.5 percent.

The country also saw a significant drop in the volume of oil exported, from 56.5 billion barrels in July 2009 to just 48 billion last month, but this was offset by higher prices and as a whole Norway's oil exports only slipped 0.1 percent last month.

Not including oil and gas, Norway registered a widening trade deficit last month of 7.1 billion kroner, from a deficit of 6.3 billion a year earlier.

The picture was brighter for the six first months of the year however, when the Norwegian trade surplus jumped tree percent to 200.9 billion kroner, pushed up largely by a 25-percent hike in oil exports.

Not counting oil and gas, the country's trade deficit shrank nine percent during the first half of the year to 61.8 billion.