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Journalism of Courage
Surging gold imports pushed the country’s trade deficit to a 11-month high in June, casting a shadow over the second consecutive double-digit export growth during the month.
Merchandise exports were up 10.22 per cent at $26.47 billion, indicating a revival in US consumer demand and stable growth in the euro zone. The growth in exports, however, was low compared to May, which had recorded a growth of 12.40 per cent.
Imports in June increased by 8.33 per cent to $38.24 billion, according to data released by the commerce ministry on Wednesday.
The import basket recorded a sharp rise in gold imports, up by a sharp 65.13 per cent to $3.12 billion as against $1.88 billion last June. Oil imports soared by 10.90 per cent year-on-year to $13.34 billion. Non-oil imports, were up by 7 per cent at $24.9 billion.
The trade deficit for June stood at $11.76 billion.
The data showed that exports of textiles, petroleum products, engineering, leather, marine products and tobacco performed well during the month. Textiles grew 14.39 per cent, petroleum products by 38.3 per cent, engineering 21.57 per cent, marine products 27.49 per cent, and tobacco 31 per cent.
Exports during the April-June period grew 9.31 per cent to $80.11 billion. In FY14, it stood at $313.5 billion.
The export data comes after a significant drop in inflation and a strong rebound in industrial production, offering some relief to the government battling stiff fiscal challenge and a weak economic growth.
Exporters body Fieo termed the trend as encouraging and said that demand in both advanced and emerging markets is improving.
Anand Rathi, a financial services firm, said that the improvement in the index of industrial production has shown in the export data as well.
