India’s merchandise exports in June grew by 23.52 per cent to $40.13 billion, while the trade deficit ballooned to a record of $26.18 billion, according to the government data released on Thursday.
Data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry showed that imports expanded by 57.55 per cent to $66.31 billion in June compared to the year-ago month, the data showed.
The trade deficit stood at $9.60 billion in June 2021.
Cumulative exports in April-June 2022-23 rose by about 24.51 per cent to $118.96 billion, while imports increased 49.47 per cent to $189.76 billion during the period.
The trade deficit during the first three months of this fiscal widened to $70.80 billion from $31.42 billion in the year-ago period.
According to officials, with the Indian rupee depreciating against the US dollar and commodity prices remaining high, the government expects the trade deficit to widen in the near term.
Imports in the petroleum constitute the biggest share of India’s imports bill. Though India gets a much higher share of discounted crude from Russia, the impact of higher global petroleum prices because of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict has continued to cost India.
On the other hand, the import of coal, coke, and briquettes zoomed by an annual 260 per cent to come to a staggering $6.47 billion in June.
Gold became India’s another major expense as imports rise by a huge 182 per cent. Imports of the yellow metal jumped to $2.7 billion in June, up from $969 million in the same month of the previous year.