India's trade gap widens despite a 35.25 per cent rise in February exports news
02 April 2008

Mumbai: The current account deficit of the country widened to $4.23 billion in February from $3.62 billion in the same month last year despite a 35.25 per cent rise in exports this time around, official data showed.

Exports in February grew by an impressive 35.25 per cent to $14.23 billion, while imports surged 30.53 per cent to $18.46 billion, according to official data published by the Reserve Bank of India.

In rupee terms, exports, at Rs56,569 crore, however, showed an increase of 21.71 per cent in February. Imports in rupee terms showed a growth of 17.45 per cent.

Exports for the 11-month period (April-February) of fiscal 2008 grew 22.9 per cent to $138.42 billion.

Cumulative imports for the April-February period rose to $210.89 billion, showing a growth of 30.21 per cent.

Trade deficit for the 11-month period zoomed to $72.46 billion against $49.32 billion a year ago.
 
India's current account deficit stood at $5.38 billion during the third quarter of (October-December) of 2007-08 fiscal compared with $3.67 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year.

A 41 per cent rise in import payments due to hardening global crude oil prices was one of the major reasons for pushing up the current account deficit. India's current account deficit accounts for roughly 0.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is estimated at a little over $1 trillion.

Trade deficit also went up to $25.3 billion during the third quarter of the current financial year as against $16.5 billion during the same period last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on India's balance of payments (BoP) said.


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India's trade gap widens despite a 35.25 per cent rise in February exports