India's trade deficit up 65 per cent at Rs4,445 billion
02 Mar 2009
Cumulative trade deficit of the country zoomed to Rs4,446 billion ($99.09 billion) at the end of April-January 2008-09, up 65 per cent in rupee terms and up 48 per cent in dollar terms, from Rs2,694 billion ($66.83 billion) at the end of April-January 2007-08.
At around $99.09 billion, the figure is nearly 60 per cent of the country's forex reserves of around $165 billion.
Cumulative value of exports from the country for April-January 2008-09 stood at $144.27 billion (Rs6,455.72 billion) as against $127.45 billion (Rs5,129.45 billion) registering a growth of 13.2 per cent in dollar terms and 25.9 per cent in rupee terms over the same period last year.
| Correction: domain-b's earlier report "India's trade deficit up 65 per cent at $445 billion" was based on figures put out by the Press Information Bureau of the government of India. The PIB report said, "The trade deficit for April- January, 2008-09 was estimated at US$444,610 million, which was higher than the deficit at US$269,352 million during April- January, 2007-08." We accepted the dollar value in good faith and converted the figure from million to billion, to simplify the figure for our readers. However, we subsequently realised that the figures should have read Rs instead of US$, and the figure too was wrong. The correct trade deficit figure is Rs4,446 billion rupees and not $445 billion as erroneously carried in the title of our report. We sincerely regret the error. |
Exports during January 2008-09 were down 15.9 per cent at $12.38 billion compared to $14.72 billion during January 2008. In rupee terms, exports were up 4.3 per cent at Rs604.60 billion compared to the value of exports during January 2007-08.
India's imports during January 2008-09 were valued at $18.46 billion, down 18.2 per cent from $22.57 billion in January 2007-08. In rupee terms, imports increased by 1.4 per cent.
Cumulative value of imports for the period April-January 2008-09 was $243.36 billion (Rs10,901.82 billion) as against $194.29 billion (Rs7,822.97 billion), registering a growth of 25.3 per cent in dollar terms and 39.4 per cent in rupee terms over the same period last year.
Oil imports during January 2008-09 were down 47.5 per cent at $4.46 billion compared to $8.51 billion million in the corresponding period of the previous year. Oil imports during April-January 2008-09 were valued at $83.29 billion, up 32.4 per cent from oil imports of $62.93 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year year.
Non-oil imports during January 2008-09 were 0.5 per cent lower at $14.0 billion than $14.06 billion in January 2007-08. Non-oil imports during April- January 2009 were up around 22 per cent at $160.07 billion compared to such imports valued at $131.36 billion in April-January 2007-08.
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