An increase in crude oil imports pushed India’s goods import bill to $60.3 billion in April, an increase of 31%, official data showed. Merchandise exports rose 30.7% to $40.19 billion, with the trade deficit widening from $18.5 billion in March last month to $20.11 billion.
Meanwhile, India’s crude oil imports hit a record high in April, crossing 4.8 million barrels per day, S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a report on Friday. The research company said Russian-origin crude made up 5% of India’s total marine imports for the first time.
Trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry projected petroleum imports in April to be around $20.2 billion, up 87.5% from imports of $10.7 billion in April 2021.
slow growth
Rating agency ICRA said it expects the trade trade deficit to reach a record $250-255 billion in 2022-23, as growth in merchandise exports will slow to around 9% during the year. On the other hand, imports were projected to increase by about 16%, with the growth in domestic demand expected to exceed external demand.
April’s growth in exports was led by petroleum products (127.7%), electronic goods (71.7%), cereals (60.8%), coffee (59.4%), processed food (38.8%) and leather products (36.7%) , resulting in record goods exports for April, the ministry said.
Coal and petroleum imports were higher than earlier estimates – a jump of 146.3% to the former at $4.93 billion. The value of fertilizer imports nearly tripled to $1.2 billion from $376 million in April 2021. The increase in the value of these three import items reflects a sharp increase in global prices.
“Imports and exports expanded similarly, but oil widened the trade deficit to $20.1 billion,” said Aditi Nair, chief economist at ICRA. “Given the increased commodity prices following the Russia-Ukraine conflict, total merchandise imports remained above $60 billion for the second consecutive month,” he said.