New Delhi: Exports grew by 23.52 per cent to $40.13 billion in June, while trade deficit Government data said on Thursday that it touched a record high of $ 26.18 billion, mainly due to a jump in gold and crude oil imports.
The country’s export growth in May stood at 20.55 per cent.
The data showed that imports grew 57.55 per cent to $66.31 billion in June compared to the year-ago month.
“The trade trade deficit is estimated at $26.18 billion in June 2022 from $9.60 billion in June 2021, an increase of 172.72 percent,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.
Crude oil imports nearly doubled to $21.3 billion in June. Coal and coke imports doubled to $6.76 billion in the month under review, from $1.88 billion in June 2021.
Gold imports also increased by about 183 percent to $2.74 billion.
In June 2021, imports were reduced due to restrictions due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lower imports resulted in a narrower trade deficit of $9.6 billion in June 2021.
Cumulative exports grew by 24.51 per cent to $118.96 billion in April-June 2022-23, while imports grew 49.47 per cent to $189.76 billion.
The trade deficit widened to $70.80 billion during the first three months of the current fiscal, from $31.42 billion in the year-ago period.
On the export front, outbound shipments of petroleum products more than doubled to $8.65 billion. Gems and jewelery shipments grew 25 percent to $3.53 billion.
Shipments of textiles, rice, oilseeds, tea, engineering, and meat, dairy and poultry products also registered positive growth during the previous month.
However, exports of iron ore, handicrafts, plastics and linoleum, cotton yarn/fabric/made-to-order, handloom products, carpets and cashews registered negative growth in June.
Commenting on the figures, Aditi Nair, Chief Economist, Icra Ltd, said that the trade deficit poses some upside risk to the current account deficit for the first quarter of the current fiscal.
“We expect a marginal decline in our FY23 current account deficit estimate of $105 billion, or 3 percent of GDP,” he said.
Further, the ministry said that the estimated value of exports of services for June 2022 is $24.77 billion, showing a positive growth of 22.04 per cent.
Services imports rose 48.62 per cent to $16.11 billion during the month.
During the April-June period of the current fiscal, exports grew by 26.25 per cent to $70.97 billion. Imports rose 49.15 percent to $45.35 billion.
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