By Xinhua,
New Delhi : India’s trade deficit in the first half of the current fiscal year rose to 59.771 billion U.S. dollars, against 39.098 billion U.S. dollars last fiscal, the trade data showed Monday.
The data, released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry of India, showed that imports during April-September were valued at 154.744 billion U.S. dollars, up 38.6 percent over the corresponding period of last fiscal.
Exports were up 30.9 percent during April-September at 94.973 billion U.S. dollars, against 72.556 billion U.S. dollars during the like period of last fiscal, according to the Indo-Asian News Service.
As per the latest data, India’s merchandise export growth slumped to the lowest level in 18 months during September and was valued at 13.748 billion U.S. dollars, up just 10.4 percent in the like month of the previous fiscal.
The global economic meltdown appeared to have impacted the export growth, which had otherwise expanded 26.9 percent in August, the report said.
The import growth in September was 43.3 percent.
The trade data further revealed that oil imports during April-September were valued at 55.063 billion U.S. dollars.
India has set an export target of 200 billion U.S. dollars for the current fiscal, against an actual achievement of 155 billion U.S. dollars during the previous fiscal.