India’s trade gap widens, despite strong exports
India's exports recorded a robust growth of 34.32% in June and reached $5.67 billion against $4.22 billion registered a year ago.
Despite the increase in exports, the country's trade gap in the mentioned period expanded to $2.2 billion from $1.3 billion last year as imports soared by 43%.
Exports are expected to continue their growth momentum in the next few months due to rising global demand, but imports may decelerate because of weak monsoon which affects industrial output growth.
Based on the provisional data published by the Commerce and Industry Ministry, exports grew by 28% from a year earlier in the first quarter of the current fiscal year to $16.4 billion from $12.8 billion recorded during previous fiscal year.
In Indian currency term, exports surged by 22.2% in the first quarter compared to the same period of last year. The government expected exports to increase by 16% in the current fiscal year.
In April-June 2004 period,
India's imports amounted to $22.4 billion with an increase of 31% compared to $17.2 billion recorded in the corresponding period of previous year.