India's trade deficit widens to two-and-a-half year high in May

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade deficit further widened to $13.84 billion in May, its highest in two-and-a-half years, on higher gold imports, government data showed on Thursday.

The deficit was $13.25 billion in April.

Gold imports surged to nearly $5 billion from $3.85 billion a month ago. Year-on-year, the import of the precious metal more than trebled.

Merchandise exports for May came in at $24.01 billion, up 8.32 percent from a year ago. Goods imports for the month were $37.86 billion, a gain of 33.09 percent from the same period last year, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Malini Menon)