High exports, low imports bring down trade deficit in Sept

Rising exports and declining imports in September narrowed the trade deficit to a 30-month low of $6.76 billion, which may help to rupee to stabilise after excessive volatility in the past few months.

"Imports have shown a significant fall of 18.1 per cent and exports have shown a rise of 11.15 per cent in September.

The trade deficit is the lowest in the last 30 months," Commerce Secretary S R Rao said.

While exports of textiles, pharmaceuticals and agriculture recorded decent growth, imports came down mainly on account of a decline in inward shipments of gold and oil.

Imports of gold and silver plunged more than 80 per cent to $0.8 billion in September from $4.6 billion a year earlier. Oil imports declined by about 6 per cent to $13.19 billion.

"I am confident that import-containment measures put in place for non-essential imports are playing out extremely well and we need to continue this so that our rupee becomes stronger," Rao added.

The rupee has depreciated by about 15 per cent since April.

The previous low for the trade deficit was $3.8 billion in March 2011. The gap was $10.9 billion in August.

Exports and imports in September stood at $27.68 billion and $34.4 billion, respectively.

During April-September this fiscal, exports grew by 5.14 per cent to $152.1 billion while imports declined by 1.8 per cent to $232.23 billion. The trade deficit for the six-month period was $80.1 billion.

The Secretary expressed confidence that the export target of $325 billion this fiscal would be achieved.

India's trade deficit has been fuelled by high imports of gold and crude oil, contributing to the current account deficit, which has touched an all-time high of 4.8 per cent of GDP, or $88.2 billion, in 2012-13.