India’s 9-month trade deficit nears $100 bn despite falling imports

India's trade deficit for the nine months ended 31 December 2015 stood at $99.21 billion, despite lower imports and a fall in the country's merchandise exports.

The trade deficit for April-December 2015-16 was estimated at $99.208 billion, which was lower than the deficit of $111.69 billion during April-December 2014-15.

Exports during December 2015 were valued at $22.30 billion (Rs148,491.18 crore), which was 14.75 per cent lower in dollar terms and 9.53 per cent lower in rupee terms compared to exports worth $26.15 billion (Rs164,127.08 crore) during December 2014.

Cumulative value of exports for the period April-December 2015-16 stood at $196.60 billion (Rs1,273,322.99 crore) against $239.93 billion (Rs1,458,094.40 crore) registering a negative growth of 18.06 per cent in dollar terms and a 12.67 per cent decline in rupee terms over the same period last year.

Non-petroleum exports in December 2015 are valued at $19.93 billion, against such exports valued at $21.63 billion in December 2014, a decline of 7.86 per cent.

Non-petroleum exports during April-December 2015 stood 9.4 per cent lower at $173.29 billion against $191.36 billion during the corresponding period in 2014-15.

The union commerce ministry said the trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies where growth in exports have fallen for USA, European Union, China  by 10.30 per cent, 10.83 per cent and 6.94 per cent, respectively, year-on-year, in October 2015 as per WTO statistics.

India imported goods and services worth $33.96 billion (Rs226,168.20 crore) in December 2015, which was 3.88 per cent lower in dollar terms and 2.00 per cent higher in rupee terms over the level of imports valued at $35.33 billion (Rs221,726.88 crore) in December 2014.

Cumulative value of imports for the period April-December 2015-16 stood at $295.81 billion (Rs1,915,849.40 crore) against $351.61 billion (Rs2,136,855.40 crore) registering a negative growth of 15.87 per cent in dollar terms and a 10.34 per cent decline in rupee terms over the same period last year.

Oil imports during December 2015 were valued at $6.66 billion, which was 33.19 per cent lower than oil imports valued at $9.96 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Cumulative oil imports during April-December 2015-16 stood at $68.07 billion, which was 41.60 per cent lower than oil imports worth $116.56 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports during December 2015 were estimated at $27.304 billion, which was 7.63 per cent higher than non-oil imports worth $25.37 billion in December 2014.

Cumulative non-oil imports during April-December 2015-16 were valued at $227.74 billion, which was 3.11 per cent lower than the level of such imports valued at $235.05 billion in April-December 2014-15.