Trade deficit doubles in Feb as imports surge 66%

Imports, which surged by 66 per cent on the back of faster economic revival, far outweighed growth in exports, resulting in trade deficit nearly doubling to $8.96 billion in February over the year-ago period.

Though the overall economic revival boosted demand for imports which surged to $25.05 billion in February, this surge was primarily driven by oil import which shot up by a whopping 97.4 per cent over the same month last month.

Against this, exports expanded by 34.8 per cent in February, indicating revival of demand for Indian merchandise in the Western markets.

For the cumulative April-February period, exports aggregated $152.98 billion, down by 11.3 per cent under the impact of the global downturn felt in the earlier months of the just-concluded fiscal.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said:"Exports would reach $168-169 billion for the full fiscal which ended yesterday."

For the 11-months period, imports, however, declined to $248 billion from $287 billion in the previous year, according to the official data released here today. The cumulative trade gap for the April-February period dropped to $95.41 billion from $114.72 billion.

Oil imports jumped to $7.63 billion, up 97.4 per cent from a year ago period in the reporting month. But this is lower by 18.2 per cent to $73.23 billion during the April-February period.

Non-oil imports rose by 55.6 per cent in February to $17.42 billion. For the 11 months period, non-oil imports were valued at $175 billion, down by 11.4 per cent.

Imports were subdued in the initial months of the last fiscal because of the global downturn, which has picked up again since November, analysts said.