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 as well as petroleum products grew by 33%, 15.77% and 39.5% in January. However, shipments of ready-made garments declined by 8.38% to US$ 1.39 billion last month. Gold imports dropped by 22% to US$ 1.59 billion last month as against US$ 2.04 billion in January 2017.
Oil and non-oil imports during the month under review rose by 42.64% and 20.49% to US$ 11.65 billion and US$ 29 billion, respectively. During April-January 2017-18, oil imports increased by 26.35% to US$ 87.80.Billion. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank data showed that the exports in services in December 2017 were valued at US$ 16 billion.
The imports stood at US$ 9.85 billion.
In a statement, it said that the trade balance in services (net export of services) for the month was estimated at US$ 6.14 billion.Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said in a tweet that "export focused initiatives continue to bear fruit". Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that though the shipments are witnessing positive growth for the third time in a row, the rate of growth is declining on month-on-month basis. Expressing concern, FIEO President Ganesh Gupta said with this trend, the trade deficit in this fiscal will touch US$ 150 billion. He urged the government to look into the refund issues seriously by undertaking a clearance drive so as to clear all cases by March 31.
