India recorded its highest monthly exports during the fiscal in February, with an 11.9 percent increase to $41.4B, primarily propelled by heightened shipments of engineering goods, electronic items, and pharmaceutical products.
Escalating trade deficit
The trade deficit in February amounted to $18.7B, up from $16.57B in the corresponding month last year, owing to a significant surge in gold imports
Increase in gold imports
During the 11-month period of the financial year, this is the most substantial export growth achieved, both in merchandise and overall, which is highly encouraging,” he remarked.
Additionally, India’s overall exports are expected to surpass the previous year’s record exports.
“We will exceed the records set in the last two years,” the secretary noted.
The primary drivers of merchandise export growth in February included engineering goods, electronic goods, organic and inorganic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and petroleum products.
In February, exports of engineering goods rose by 15.9 percent to $9.94B compared to $8.58B in February 2023. Electronic goods shipments surged by 54.81 percent to $3B from $1.94B in February 2023.
Exports of organic and inorganic chemicals soared by 33.04 percent to $2.95B in February.
Exports of pharmaceutical products increased by 22.24 percent annually, while exports of petroleum products grew by 5.08 percent to $8.24B, according to Free Press Journal.
Improvement in overall trade deficit
The overall trade deficit in April-February 2023-24 has improved by 37.8 percent from $116.13B in April-February 2022-23 to $72.24B in April-February 2023-24. The merchandise trade deficit has improved by 8.43 percent from $245.94B in April-February 2022-23 to $225.20B in April-February 2023-24,” the commerce ministry stated.
(Finance World and The Free Press Journal have published the article under a mutual content partnership arrangement.)
