India’s exports rose marginally by 1.62 per cent to US$ 33.92 billion, while trade deficit more than doubled to US$ 27.98 billion in August due to increased crude oil imports, commerce ministry data showed on Wednesday. The revised data showed that imports rose by 37.28 per cent to US$ 61.9 billion in August this year. The preliminary data released by the ministry on September 3 had shown a 1.15 per cent decline in exports to US$ 33 billion in August.
During April-August 2022-23, exports registered a growth of 17.68 per cent to US$ 193.51 billion. Imports during the 5-month period of this fiscal grew by 45.74 per cent to US$ 318 billion. Trade deficit widened to US$ 124.52 billion in April-August this fiscal as against US$ 53.78 billion in the same period last year. The deficit in August last year was US$ 11.71 billion. Crude oil imports in August this year increased by 87.44 per cent to US$ 17.7 billion. However, gold imports dipped by about 47 per cent to US$ 3.57 billion, the data showed.
On the other hand, silver imports jumped to US$ 684.34 million during the month under review from US$ 15.49 million in the same month last year. Rise in import values in August has been witnessed in major commodity groups such as coal, coke & briquettes (133.64 per cent to US$ 4.5 billion), chemicals (43 per cent to about US$ 3 billion), and vegetable oil (41.55 per cent to about US$ 2 billion).
Further, export products that recorded positive growth in August included electronic goods, rice, oil meals, tea, coffee and chemicals. Export of petroleum products rose by 22.76 per cent to US$ 5.71 billion. Similarly, chemicals and pharma shipments increased by 13.47 per cent and 6.76 per cent to US$ 2.53 billion and US$ 2.14 billion respectively. Sectors which recorded negative growth in August included engineering (14.19 per cent to US$ 8.3 billion), gems and jewellery (about 3 per cent to US$ 3.33 billion), readymade garments of all textiles (0.34 per cent to US$ 1.23 billion), and plastic (1.10 per cent to US$ 747.21 million).
Meanwhile according to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) exports would start picking up from October onwards. Reasons like rupee depreciation and moving away of buyers from China as manufacturing cost is going up in Beijing will help India’s exports in the coming months, FIEO president A Sakthivel said. It expects the country to clock US$ 470 billion in goods exports this fiscal. FIEO director general Ajay Sahai said that demand for low-value goods is increasing but volumes seem to remain intact. The WTO has already revised its forecast for the global trade growth to 3 per cent from 4.7 per cent in April and FIEO expects a further downward revision in October.
