India’s exports, imports fell in May, trade deficit rises to 5-month high

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–

India’s exports fell 10.3% year-on-year basis to $34.98 billion in May this year, according to data released by the country’s commerce ministry on Thursday. Imports slid 6.6% to $57.1 billion against $61.13 billion during the corresponding period of last year.

As a result, the trade deficit rose to a five-month high of $22.1 billion.

India has been consistently witnessing trade deficit for many years now.

It occurs mainly due to high demand for crude oil, gold and electronic goods, which form a main chunk of India’s import basket.

Experts said the country’s domestic manufacturing sector has failed to compete globally, which has led to a growing dependence on imported goods.

Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said that headwinds still continue on the global trade front.

He further informed that an exports strategy focussing on 40 countries is being worked upon by both the departments of commerce and promotion for industry and internal trade.

“India’s trade performance, after witnessing very strong growth in 2022-23 has shown declining trends as compared to the high base of last year as the pace of growth in global merchandise exports moderated significantly in 2023, as persisting geopolitical tensions and monetary tightening induced recessionary fears have led to a decline in consumer spending across advanced nations,” said the Commerce ministry in a release.

India’s overall exports in the just concluded financial year 2022-2023 were worth $775.87 billion, a growth of over 14 per cent and almost $100 billion more than last year’s figures. In 2021-22, the overall exports were at $676.53 billion.

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