India's exports remained in the negative territory for the 11th month in a row by registering a dip of 17.53 per cent in October to USD 21.35 billion due to a demand slowdown, while trade deficit showed an improvement.
Exports contracted due to steep decline in shipments of petroleum products (57 per cent), iron ore (85.5 per cent), engineering (11.65 per cent) and gems and jewelery (12.84 per cent) amid a global demand slump.
The imports too shrank an annual 21.15 per cent to USD 31.12 billion in October, narrowing the trade gap to USD 9.76 billion, lowest figure since February.
The trade gap was USD 6.85 billion in February.
Gold imports during the month under review showed a sharp decline of 59.5 per cent at USD 1.70 billion.
The cumulative exports during April-October this fiscal came down by 17.62 per cent to USD 154.29 billion as against USD 187.2 billion in the same period last year, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry.
The trade deficit during the first seven months of the current fiscal has shrunk to USD 77.76 billion as against USD 86.26 billion last fiscal.
According to exporters body FIEO, going by this trend it would be difficult to reach USD 300 billion in 2015-16.
"Going by the current trend and factoring little improvement, reaching USD 300 billion in the current fiscal looks a remote possibility," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said.
He said the delay in announcement of interest subvention scheme and redressal of issues relating to transaction cost could provide some support to exports during difficult global economic scenario.
Oil and non-oil imports in October slid 45.31 per cent and 9.93 per cent to USD 6.84 billion and USD 24.2 billion, respectively.
