NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's September trade deficit hit its lowest level in five months at $13.98 billion, the trade ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The figure is despite a rising oil import bill for India, the world's third-biggest crude importer, amid concerns that U.S. sanctions against Iran next month would remove a substantial volume of crude oil from the world markets.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar, writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Malini Menon)

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