\"Export trade during August 2018 recorded at $27.84 billion, a positive growth of 19.21 per cent. Exports excluding petroleum also reported a positive growth of 17.43 per cent,\" said Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.

For three consecutive months, India's merchandise exports have shown double-digit growth.

The sharp surge in imports led to worsening of trade deficit to $18.02 billion in the reporting month as against a deficit of $11.45 billion during July 2017.

The consumer confidence survey was for the June round, and conducted in six metros - Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi and had 5268 responses.

The Indian currency plunged 7 paise in trade today compared to yesterday's record low close of 69.05 against the US currency. The currency opened at 69.01 level today

The trade deficit in June 2018 is the highest since November 2014 when the gap was USD 16.86 billion. The deficit in June 2017 stood at USD 12.96 billion.

Despite government initiatives, India's exports have remained below the 2013/14 levels. Exporters' GST problems and rising trade barriers suggest fast growth is unlikely to materialise.

India recorded $303 billion of exports in merchandise in 2017-18, which was almost 10% growth for the entire fiscal, the fastest growth for exports from India in almost half a decade. But our total exports for 2017-18 are still $16-17 billion lower than what India reported in 2013-14. Watch BusinessToday.In Editor Rajeev Dubey discuss why India is struggling to export more merchandise into the world markets with Prosenjit Datta, Editor, Business Today, and Joe C Mathew, Senior Editor, Business Today.

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Since 2016, e-commerce exports had been allowed through Foreign Post Offices (FPOs) under MEIS (Merchandise Export from India Scheme) incentives from the post offices at Chennai, Mumbai & Delhi.

In 2013/14, India's merchandise exports stood at $314.4 billion. In the next year, it fell to $310.3 billion. And the next year, 2015/16 saw a further fall to $262.3 billion before it improved marginally to $275.9 billion in 2016/17. This financial year, it has clocked $302 billion, which is still lower than what it was four years ago.

The Export Promotion Council for EOUs & SEZs, has sought a linkage between the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) portal and the NSDL portal, for smooth facilitation of the GST refunds.

The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), fell from 52.1 in February to a five-month low of 51.0 in March, indicating the slowest improvement in operating conditions recorded by the survey since last October.

India has a USD 51 billion merchandise trade deficit and around USD 270 million services trade deficit with China.