India's exports fall for 16th straight month

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

SME Times News Bureau | 19 Apr, 2016
India's merchandise exports in March were valued at USD 22.72 billion, down 5.47 percent in dollar terms against USD 24.03 billion in the like month of last year, suggesting a decline for the 16th straight month.

Cumulatively, for the fiscal year 2015-16, exports were down 15.85 percent in dollar terms at USD 261.14 billion against USD 310.34 billion, according to official data on foreign trade released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday.

The data showed that imports declined by 21.56 percent to USD 27.78 billion in March this year from USD 35.42 billion in same month a year ago.

Cumulative imports for 2015-16 were worth more than USD 379.59 billion, which was 15.28 percent fall from USD 448.03 billion worth recorded for 2014-15.

The continuing fall in the crude oil prices is seen to have brought down the import bill.

Oil imports during the month under review declined by 35.30 percent to USD 4.79 billion from USD 7.41 billion.

Cumulatively, crude oil imports plummet by 40.24 percent in last fiscal at USD 82.66 billion from USD 138.32 billion.

Trade deficit, thus, narrowed to a low of USD 5.07 billion in March from USD 11.39 billion reported during the corresponding month of 2015.

Trade deficit for 2015-16, too narrowed to USD 118.45 billion, while the corresponding figure for the previous year was more than USD 137.69 billion.

Further, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that exports of services dropped by 1.94 percent to USD 12.32 billion in February 2016.