The country’s trade deficit widened to $10.16 billion in October, compared with $9.69 billion in the same month a year earlier, as gold imports more than doubled, government data showed.
Gold imports in October rose 108.43 per cent to $3.5 billion compared with the same month a year earlier amid speculation that the Centre might impose a ban on imports as a measure to further crackdown on black money in addition to its move to demonetise high-value currencies.
Exports of goods grew 9.59 per cent to $23.51 billion compared with the same month a year earlier due to an increase in exports of gems & jewellery, engineering goods and readymade garments. Imports expanded 8.11 per cent to $33.67 billion.
Owing to poor global demand, goods exports had fallen for 20 of the 23 months since December 2014 – the three months that the shipments registered positive growth this year were in June (1.27 per cent), September (4.62 per cent) and October.
‘Encouraging sign’
“This is a very encouraging sign, as most of the global economies are still reeling under pressure to perform and global demand still does not seem to pick up,” G. K. Gupta, Vice-President of the apex exporters body FIEO said.
Mr. Gupta said if the positive growth continues in the coming months, India’s exports could touch $280 billion during the current fiscal, adding that the support given by the Centre will further be seen in exports figures in the coming months as well.
Working capital requirement hurdles in the refund process for exports in the proposed Goods & Services Tax regime along with infrastructural bottlenecks and further reduction in logistics cost should also be looked into by the Centre, he said.
Chairman of the apex engineering exporters body EEPC India, T.S. Bhasin said the performance of the engineering exports sector was due to a low base of export growth in the previous fiscal. He said there were signs of improvement in select European countries and in some neighbouring countries such as Nepal.
Oil imports grew by 3.98 per cent to $7.14 billion, while exports of petroleum products recorded a 7.24 per cent growth to $2.71 billion.
Non-petroleum exports in October grew 9.9 per cent to $20.79 billion, the ministry said. Shipments of gems and jewellery registered a 21.84 per cent growth to $4.38 billion, while engineering goods grew 13.86 per cent to $5.26 billion and readymade garments posted a 10.68 per cent growth to $1.36 billion.
Iron ore exports rose from $11.31 million in October 2015 to $331.96 million – a growth of 2,835 per cent. Non-oil imports grew 9.28 per cent to $26.53 billion in October.
Transport equipment was an item that witnessed a major jump in imports — registering a 15.77 per cent growth to $1.88 billion, while machinery imports grew by 0.55 per cent to $2.25 billion.
