Exports contracts for 17th month; trade deficit narrows

Continuous fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering products has led to decline in exports for 17th month in a row in April by 6.74 per cent to USD 20.5 billion.
Imports too dipped by 23.1 per cent to USD 25.41 billion in the month under review as against USD 33 billion in April 2015.
Trade deficit in April more than halved to USD 4.84 billion as compared to USD 11 billion in the same month last year. The trade gap was a five-year low figure. It was at USD 2.63 billion in December 2010.
The Commerce Ministry said that the trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies.

"The growth in exports have fallen for USA (3.87 per cent), EU (0.04 per cent), China (25.34 per cent) and Japan (1.10 per cent) for February over the corresponding period of previous year as per WTO statistics," it said.
Exporters body FIEO said downfall in exports has been arrested to some extent both in March and April and hoped that shipments move into positive territory from June onwards.

On the other hand, Engineering Export Promotion COuncil said, "There has been an alarming deterioration in exports of highly-job oriented engineering exports".
Exports have been falling since December 2014 due to weak global demand and slide in oil prices.

Oil imports in April dipped by 24.01 per cent to USD 5.6 billion. Non-oil imports too fell by 22.83 per cent to USD 19.75 billion.
In April, overseas shipments of petroleum products shrank 28.15 per cent to USD 1.97 billion, while that of engineering goods declined by 19 per cent to USD 4.76 billion. These two sectors contribute significant in the country's total exports.
However, exports of tea, coffee, gems and jewellery and pharmaceuticals recorded positive growth.
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The commerce ministry said that as per RBI's statement, the trade balance in services (net export of services) for March was estimated at USD 4.99 billion.

The net export of services for April-March, 2015-16 was estimated at USD 69.59 billion which is lower than 2014-15 figure.
"Taking merchandise and services together, overall trade deficit for April-March, 2015-16 was estimated at USD 48.86 billion which is 20.03 per cent lower in dollar terms than the level of USD 61.1 billion in 2014-15," it said.