Trade deficit widens to over 3-yr high in January even as exports increase by 9%

India’s exports grew by 9% to US$ 24.38 billion in January, helped by a healthy growth in shipments of chemicals, engineering goods and petroleum products, even as the trade deficit widened to an over three-year high.

The trade gap soared to US$ 16.3 billion in January on account of a 26.1% increase in imports to US$ 40.68 billion due to increased inbound shipments of crude oil, as per data released by the commerce ministry. The country’s trade deficit — the difference between imports and exports — had touched the figure of US$ 16.86 billion in November 2014. The trade deficit in January last year stood at US$ 9.90 billion. “Exports have been on a positive trajectory since August 2016 to January 2018 with a dip of 1.1% in the month of October 2017,” the ministry said in a statement.

Cumulative value of exports for April-January 2017-18 grew by 11.75% to US$ 247.89 billion as against US$ 221.82 billion in the year-ago period. Imports during the ten-month period of the current fiscal amounted to US$ 379 billion as against US$ 310 billion, a growth of of 22.21%. The trade deficit during the period widened to US$ 131.15 billion. Exports of chemicals, engineering goods …read more