Amid demand slowdown in the Western markets, India's exports in May declined by 4.16 percent to US $ 25.68 billion, according to official figures released today.

Official data shows that exports for the month of May declined 4.16 percent, at US $ 25.68 billion compared to corresponding period previous year when it stood at US $ 26.79 billion.     

During the month,  imports declined as well by 7.36 percent to US $ 41.9 per cent in May 2012 from US $ 45.2 billion year-on-year, resulting in shrunk in trade deficit to US $ 16.3 billion, from US $ 18.5 billion year-on-year.

After crossing the US $ 300 billion mark last fiscal, India is looking at an export figure of over US $ 360 billion in 2012-13.

Exports in April were US $ 24.4 billion. The overseas shipments in April-May of 2012-13 now total US $ 50.13 billion, as against US $ 50.48 in the same period last fiscal.

Cumulative imports during the first two months of this fiscal were US $ 79.8 billion, down 2.42 per cent from US $ 81.87 billion in the same period of 2011-12.

In the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) supplement released earlier this month, the government had announced a slew of measures like continuation of interest subvention to boost exports because of fragile global economy and problems in the euro-zone.

The foreign trade figures that were released by the department of commerce in a media interaction today are provisional and subject to change.