India's trade deficit widens to $9.87 billion in April news
02 June 2008

Mumbai: India's trade deficit widened to $9.87 billion in the first month of the current fiscal, against $6.81 billion in the same period last year, figures released by the commerce ministry showed.

The country began fiscal 2008-09 with an impressive 31.5 per cent growth in exports, but a surge in oil prices pushed the growth in imports to 36.6 per cent in April.

Exports during April 2008 were $14.4 billion (Rs57,633 crore) against $10.95 billion (Rs46,164 crore) in April 2007 – 32 per cent higher in dollar terms and 25 per cent higher in rupee terms.

Imports during the month went up to $24.27 billion (Rs97,151 crore), against $17.76 billion (Rs74,895 crore) in the same month the previous year - up 37 per cent in dollar terms and 30 per cent in rupee terms - driven mainly by import of crude oil whose prices have more than doubled in the past one year.

Oil imports during April 2008 was $8,029 million, which was 46 per cent higher than in the corresponding month last year,

Oil imports alone accounted for $8.02 billion of the import bill, showing a rise of 46.2 per cent over imports valued at $5.4 billion in April last year. Non-oil imports rose 32 per cent to $16,245 million.

The export performance in April has, however, been impressive in the backdrop of a strong rupee which had impinged on exporters' margins in 2007-08.

While rupee started losing ground since May, the positive impact on imports could be seen in the next few months.


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India's trade deficit widens to $9.87 billion in April