India's trade deficit narrows to $10.86 billion, as imports, exports fall

India’s trade deficit fell to USD 10.86 billion in September, down by 27 per cent on the back of a dip in exports and imports, official data showed.

Exports contracted by 6.57 per cent to USD 26 billion in September mainly due to significant dip in shipments from key sectors such as petroleum, engineering, leather, chemicals, and gems and jewellery.

Imports too declined by 13.85 per cent to USD 36.89 billion, the data released on Tuesday (October 15) showed. Trade deficit in September last year stood at USD 14.95 billion.

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Out of 30 key export sectors, as many as 22 showed negative growth in September. Shipments of gems and jewellery, engineering goods, and petroleum products contracted by 5.56 per cent, 6.2 per cent and 18.6 per cent, respectively.

In September, oil imports declined by 18.33 per cent to USD 8.98 billion, and non-oil imports fell by 12.3 per cent to USD 27.91 billion.

Cumulatively, during April-September 2019, exports were down 2.39 per cent to USD 159.57 billion while imports contracted by 7 per cent to USD 243.28 billion. Gold imports plunged 50.82 per cent to USD 1.27 billion in the month.

Services rise in exports, imports

India’s services exports rose by 10.4 per cent to USD 18.24 billion in August in the current financial year, data from Reserve Bank showed on Tuesday.

The services exports or receipts were USD 16.53 billion in the same month of 2018. It was at USD 19.08 billion in July this year.

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The services imports or payments were valued at USD 12 billion during the month, up by 16 per cent from USD 10.35 billion in the year-ago period, as per the RBI monthly data on India’s International Trade in Services.

Services imports during previous month stood at USD 12.83 billion. The RBIs monthly data on services are provisional and would undergo revision when the Balance of Payments (BoP) data are released on a quarterly basis.