India’s exports declined marginally to $35.24 billion in July, trade deficit tripled

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The country’s exports declined marginally by 0.76 per cent to $35.24 billion in July. Exports have declined for the first time during the last 17 months.

At the same time, due to increase in crude oil imports, the trade deficit tripled to $ 31.02 billion during this period.

Exports declined 0.76 percent year-on-year to $35.24 billion in July 2022. The country’s commodity exports stood at $35.51 billion in July 2021.

Earlier, during February 2021, exports had declined by 0.4 per cent.

According to preliminary data released by the commerce ministry, the country’s imports grew 43.59 percent to $66.26 billion in July 2022. It was $46.15 billion in the same month a year ago.

However, the country’s exports grew by 19.35 per cent year-on-year to $156.41 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal from $131.06 billion in the same period last fiscal.

Apart from this, imports in the April-June quarter of the financial year 2022-23 also increased by 48.12 percent year-on-year to $ 256.43 billion.

Imports of crude oil and petroleum products during July this year increased by 70.4 per cent to $21.13 billion from $12.4 billion in July 2021.

According to the data, gold imports fell by almost half to $2.37 billion last month. It was $4.2 billion in the same month a year ago.

The trade deficit has tripled to $31.02 billion in July this year due to more imports than exports. It was $10.63 billion in the same month of the previous fiscal.

At the same time, in the first quarter of the current financial year also, the trade deficit widened to $100.01 billion.

Giving details of trade figures, Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said, “In the first four months of the financial year, exports have been $156.41 billion. This shows that we are easily on track to achieve the export figure of $470 billion in the current financial year.