Trade deficit at 4-mth high

New Delhi: India’s merchandise exports rose by one per cent to $34.99 billion in April even as the trade deficit widened to a four-month high of $19.1 billion during the month, according to government data. Healthy growth in sectors such as electronics, chemicals, petroleum products and pharmaceuticals has helped in registering positive growth in exports despite global economic uncertainties.

Imports also increased by 10.25 per cent to $54.09 billion in the month under review from $49.06 billion in April 2023 due to a significant jump in gold imports.

The imports of precious metals more than doubled to $3.11 billion in April this year. Crude oil imports rose by 20.22 per cent to $16.5 billion.

Trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, in April 2023 stood at $14.44 billion. The previous high in the deficit was recorded in December 2023 at $19.8 billion.

In March 2024, the outbound shipments dipped to $41.68 billion from $41.96 billion a year ago. Briefing media on the data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said the figures show that the new fiscal year started on a good note and hoped that it would continue. He informed that the data for the country’s total exports in goods and services for 2023-24 has been revised to $778.21 billion, which is the highest so far.

Merchandise exports in the last fiscal was aggregated at $437.1 billion, while services exports stood at $341.1 billion. In merchandise exports, 13 of the 30 key sectors exhibited positive growth in April as compared to same period last year.

These include coffee, tobacco, spices, plastic and handicrafts. According to the commerce ministry data, released on Wednesday, the estimated value of services exports for April is $29.57 billion compared to $25.78 billion in April 2023. Imports of services are estimated to be increased to $16.97 billion during the month as compared to $13.96 billion in April 2023.