India\'s July trade deficit in goods at $4.83 billion\, exports decline 10.2% on year
New Delhi: The pace of contraction of India’s exports slowed in July even as outbound shipments shrank for the fifth consecutive month and the country’s trade balance turned deficit after registering a surplus after 18 years in in June, official data released Friday showed. Gold imports grew after eight months. The previous growth in gold imports was in November 2019.
Exports contracted 10.21% to $23.64 billion in July while imports fell 28.4% to $28.47 billion. Trade deficit was $4.83 billion compared to a $790 million surplus in June.
16 out of the 30 selected major commodities of export grew last month with certain employment generating sectors including ceramics, jute, cotton yarn and carpets exhibiting growth.
“The rare trade surplus seen in June predictability vanished with some recovery in merchandise imports in July which stamped out the further improvement in merchandise exports,” said Aditi Nayar, principal economist at ICRA.
Among imports, oil and electronics, showed slower declines than last month at 31.9% and 4.3%, respectively while gold imports were up 4.17% on year last month.
Non-oil, non-gold imports-an indicator of the strength of domestic demand- shrank 29.15% last month. Imports of machinery, transport equipment and machinery continued to shrink.
Total merchandise imports fell by more than 46% to $88.91 billion during April-July while exports were down 30.21% from the year-ago period to $74.96 billion.