Exports up 30.7% to $40.19 billion in April; trade deficit widens to $20.11 billion

The trade deficit in April 2021 was at $15.29 billion

The higher cost of oil imports has sent India’s merchandise trade deficit zooming to $20.11 billion in April compared to $15.29 bn in the year-ago period, official data showed Friday.

A trade deficit depicts the amount by which the cost of a country's imports exceeds the value of its exports.

Merchandise exports in April stood at $40.19 billion compared to $30.75 billion in April 2021, a growth of 30.70%. Exports of petroleum products, electronic goods, cereals and coffee contributed to the handsome export numbers in April.

However, imports grew at a faster pace to $60.30 billion against $46.04 billion in the same period last year. Increased shipment costs of crude, petroleum products, fertilizers and coal mainly contributed to the rise in the value of imports, the data showed.

"We expect the trade deficit to widen to an all-time high of $250-255 billion during the ongoing financial year. However, a robust services trade surplus is expected to temper the worsening in the current account deficit to $95-100 billion in FY23, 2.7% of GDP, from $41.5-43.5 billion, 1.3% of GDP, in FY22," Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA said.

While petroleum and crude oil imports increased by over 87% to $20.2 billion. Coal and coke imports rose to $4.93 billion against $2 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Good news came from the gold imports, which came down to $1.72 billion in April from 6.23 billion in the same period last year. Gold is the second most shipped commodity in value terms after crude in India.

FIEO Chief A Shaktivel said the benefits of the newly signed FTAs and the PLI Scheme will further help improve India's exports.