Indian Exports up by 27.6% in March, imports rise by 45%

The merchandise exports of India in March rose by 27.59% which is the steepest rise in last six years but the trade deficit became even higher as the imports rose by 45% as the prices of commodities were firm.

Petroleum, textiles, engineering goods and gems and jewelry sectors saw a rise in shipments and pushed the overall exports of the country by 27.59% to $29.2 billion in March 2017. However, the imports rose by 45.25% because of higher gold imports and the trade deficit reached to $10.4 billion. 25 sectors reported a rise in exports especially iron ore. The total imports of the country in March were $39.6 billion which is the highest in six years. Gold imports contributed $4.1 billion out of the total imports which means a rise of 329% from last year.

Indian exports have been rising significantly but still, the annual exports did not reach $300 billion in FY 2016-17. Indian goods of value $274.6 billion were exported in FY 2016­-17 which was 4.7% higher than $262.2 billion export in the previous fiscal year. The annual trade deficit in 2016-­17 reached to $105.7 billion.

The industry experts feel that this is a good indicator and the exports will cross $300 billion in this fiscal. Besides this, the domestic demand is also robust and going up as shown by the growth in non-­oil, non­-gold imports that have spiked up by 19.8%.

The March Oil imports were at $9.7 billion which means a rise of 101% and non-oil imports rose by $33.21 % and reached $29.9 billion mainly led by sectors like engineering goods, gems & jewelry and textiles.