India’s exports marginally declined 0.25% to $27.67 billion in February while imports grew by 6.98% to $40.55 billion during the month, according to provisional data released by the Commerce Ministry on March 2.
The trade deficit widened to $12.88 billion in February as compared to $10.16 billion in the year-ago period, the Ministry said in a statement.
The exports during April-February 2020-21 period stood at $255.92 billion. In the same period a year ago, it was at $291.87 billion, showing a negative growth of 12.32%.
Imports during April-February period too dipped 23% to $340.88 billion.
In February, oil imports declined 16.63% to $$8.99 billion. It was down 40.18% to $72.08 billion during the 11-month period of the current fiscal.
Major commodities of export which recorded positive growth in February include oil meals, iron ore, rice, meat, dairy and poultry products, carpet, spices, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Many export commodities recorded negative growth during the same period. They are petroleum products (-27.13%), leather (-21.62%), cashew (-18.6%), gems and jewellery (-11.18%), engineering goods (-2.56%), tea (-2.49%) and coffee (-0.73%).
