‘Extremely good month…’: India’s trade deficit down to $27.14 billion in Oct on a yearly basis

India’s merchandise trade deficit was $27.14 billion in October, which is down from $33.43 billion in the year-ago period. However, sequentially, it increased from September’s $33.43 billion.

India’s merchandise exports increased by 17.25 per cent to $39.2 billion as against $33.43 billion a year ago, as per government data that was released on Thursday. Imports increased 3.9 per cent to $66.34 billion in October, as compared to $63.86 billion in the year ago period. This brought the trade deficit, which is the gap between imports and exports to $27.14 billion in the same month.

In October, services exports were estimated at $34.02 billion, while services imports were $17 billion. This is an increase from both exports of $30.61 billion and imports of $16.32 billion.

In the April-October period, exports increased 3.18 per cent to $252.28 billion and imports by 5.77 per cent to $416.93 billion.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said, "This has been an extremely good month for exports...If we continue in this manner, we will cross $800 billion of exports this year."