Exports growth contracts by 1% to $38 bn in Dec

New Delhi: India’s exports in December 2024 contracted for the second month in a row by about one per cent year-on-year to $38.01 billion due to global uncertainties, while the trade deficit narrowed to $21.94 billion.

According to the Commerce Ministry data, imports rose by about five per cent year-on-year to $59.95 bn in December. Cumulatively, during April-December this fiscal, exports recorded a growth of 1.6 per cent to $321.71 bn and imports by 5.15 per cent to $532.48 bn. Trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports, during April-December widened to $210.77 bn from $189.74 bn during the same period previous fiscal.

Briefing the media on the latest data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that India’s exports are doing better than other countries both in goods and services. “This shows resiliency of our exports. In all the three quarters of this fiscal also, we have done better. We are doing much better in non-petroleum exports,” he told reporters here. The ministry has recently held a meeting with commercial wings of Indian Missions in 20 countries to deliberate on issues impacting exports and ways to resolve them.

These 20 countries account for about 60 per cent of India’s exports. In December last year, Barthwa said sectors which have registered healthy growth in exports included electronics, engineering and pharmaceuticals. When asked about the revision of gold and silver import data for November 2024, the secretary said a committee has been set up to create a robust mechanism for publishing consistent data.

The government revised gold import data for November 2024, bringing down numbers by $5 billion to $9.84 billion. “The data revision keeps on happening...we are following global practices of data release,”Barthwal said.