StatsGuru: Tracking India's key trade numbers

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India's balance of trade, shown in Table 1, continues to head into ever safer territory. That this is largely driven by oil prices is visible in Table 2, which demonstrates that from over a third of the import bill, oil now accounts for less than 18 per cent. Thus, the current account deficit, too, in Table 3, looks comfortable as a percentage of gross domestic product.

However, there are warning signs. The trade balance has narrowed partly because imports have fallen, as Table 4 shows. But non-oil import growth, tends to fall significantly less in the context of low oil prices, as that table shows. And the weakness of Indian export growth, including non-oil exports, in Table 5, is a real worry. It is worth noting that other peer exporters have not seen this sustained exports decline, as Table 6 reveals. Perhaps the rupee's value holds part of the answer. While the rupee has declined against the dollar, as Table 7 shows, the Reserve Bank of India has also paused on its reserve-building exercise since the beginning of this year, as Table 8 shows.