However, trade deficit declined marginally from 20.9 billion dollars reported in the preceding month of March.
During the month under review, exports led by engineering goods, petroleum products, and gems and jewellery jumped 24.22 percent year-on-year to 38.19 billion dollars while imports jumped by over 26 percent to 58.26 billion dollars due to rising crude oil prices.
Unless commodity prices recede substantially, merchandise trade deficit is expected to print above 20 billion dollars in several months of the current fiscal year of 2022-23 (April-March), said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA, a credit rating agency.
Although non-oil trade deficit remained stable, there was a shift in its composition, with a plunge in gold imports being offset by a rise in non-oil non-gold imports such as coal and chemicals, Nayar said.
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