Ramaiah Puts Trade Deficit At $4 Bn

Commerce minister BB Ramaiah has estimated the trade deficit for the current financial year at $4 billion.

Attributing the trade deficit to the burgeoning oil prices, he said we have no control over the hardening oil prices in the international market. But we have asked the petroleum ministry and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to raise domestic production to check the volume growth of imports, the minister told the news agency.

Accepting that the negative growth in exports during November and December was a cause for concern, Ramaiah, however, termed export decline as temporary and said the year might end with an export growth of just below double digit.

He said the main focus of the new export and import (exim) policy was export friendliness.