India’s April-January trade deficit up at $118.37 bn

India piled up a trade deficit of an estimated $118.37 billion in the first 10 months of the current financial year (April-January 2014-15) against a deficit of $116.53 billion during April-January 2013-14.

Trade deficit in January 2015, however, was lower at $8.32 billion, against $9.45 billion in January last year, as overall import costs declined by 11.39 per cent to $32.2 billion on the back of falling oil prices, data released by the commerce ministry showed.

India's imports during January 2015 were valued at $32.21 billion (Rs200,402.44 crore), which was 11.39 per cent lower in dollar terms and 11.18 per cent lower in rupee terms compared to the level of imports valued at $36.35 billion (Rs225,623.44 crore) in January 2014.

Cumulative value of imports for the April-January 2014-15 period stood at $383.41 billion (Rs2,334,685.06 crore) against $375.25 billion (Rs2,253,984.83 crore) in the previous year period - a growth of 2.17 per cent in dollar terms and a 3.58 per cent growth in rupee terms year-on-year.
 
Merchandise exports from the country during January 2015 were valued at $23.88 billion (Rs148,617.82 crore), which was 11.19 per cent lower in dollar terms and 10.97 per cent lower in rupee terms compared to exports worth $26.89 billion (Rs166,932.15 crore) during January 2014.

Cumulative value of exports for the period April-January 2014-15 stood at $265.04 billion (Rs1,613,789.24 crore) against $258.72 billion (Rs1,562,119.12 crore) in the same period last fiscal - a growth of 2.44 per cent in dollar terms and a 3.31 per cent growth in rupee terms over the same period last year.

Imports of crude oil, the single-largest item in the country's import basket, were down 37.6 per cent at $8.25 billion during January 2015 against oil imports valued at $13.19 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Oil imports during April-January 2014-15 were valued at $124.75 billion, which was 7.87 per cent lower than oil imports worth $135.40 billion in the corresponding period last year.
 
Non-oil imports during January 2015 were estimated at $23.96 billion, which was 3.45 per cent higher than such imports worth $23.16 billion in January 2014.

Non-oil imports during April-January 2014-15 were valued at $258.66 billion, which was 7.84 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at $239.86 billion in April-January 2013-14.