India’s April-January trade deficit zooms to $148.7 billion
09 Feb 2012
India added $14.7 billion to its ballooning trade deficit in January 2012 to take it to $148.7 billion for the first ten months of the current financial year. Imports grew at a whopping 20.3 per cent in January 2012 while exports grew at a slow 10.1 per cent during the month.
India imported goods and services worth $40.1 billion in January while its exports were worth $25.4 billion during the month, causing a trade deficit of $14.7 billion during the month, figures released by commerce secretary Rahul Khullar showed.
For the first 10 months of the current financial year (April-January 2011-12) imports grew 29.4 per cent year-on-year while its exports grew 23.5 per cent.
During the April-January period the country imported goods and services worth $391.5 billion while its exports during the 10-month period stood at $242.8 billion, which pushed the negative trade balance to $148.7 billion.
During the April-January period, import of petroleum, oil and lubricants, which account for a major share of the country's overall imports, grew 38.8 per cent to $117.9 billion while its coal imports rose 69 per cent to $14.1 billion.
Imports of gold and silver grew 46.6 per cent to $50 billion; machinery imports grew 25.8 per cent to $28.8 billion; electronics imports rose 22.9 per cent to $27.8 billion and imports of organic and inorganic chemicals grew 23.6 per cent to $15.8 billion.
During April 2011-January 2012, engineering exports which account for a major share of India's exports, grew 21 per cent to $49.7 billion; exports of petroleum and oil products rose 50.1 per cent to $48.9 billion; gems and jewellery exports rose 33 per cent to $ 37 billion; drugs and pharmaceutical exports grew 21.1 per cent to $10.20 billion; leather exports were up 23.4 per cent at $3.8 billion; cotton yarn and fabric made-up exports rose 14.7 per cent to $5.59 billion; electronics exports were up 13.4 per cent at $7.3 billion and exports of readymade garments rose 21.5 per cent to $10.9 billion while export of basic chemicals grew 29.6 per cent to $8.8 billion.
The commerce secretary said the figures are only the rough estimates and the final figure may change as and when the final import and export figures are made available.