By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s merchandise exports registered a decline for the third straight month in dollar terms and were valued at $12.690 billion, down 1.1 percent over $12.825 billion logged during the like month of last fiscal.
Cumulatively, however, the exports grew 17.1 percent during the first nine months of the fiscal to $131.990 billion, against $112.737 billion during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, official data showed Monday.
The government had already admitted that the target of $200 billion set for the current fiscal would remain unmet, expecting the year to end with a figure of $170 billion.
Imports, the data showed, were up 8.8 percent in December at $20.256 billion, against $18.610 billion, while the cumulative value of imports for the nine-month period was up 31.5 percent at $225.809 billion, against $171.718 billion.
As a result, the trade deficit ballooned to $93.819 billion during the April-December period from $58.981 billion, showed the data released by the commerce and industry ministry.
The statistics further showed that thanks to falling crude prices, oil imports in December were actually down 30.9 percent at $4.712 billion against $6.824 billion in the like month of the previous year.
Cumulatively, however, such imports were up 44.8 percent during the April-December period at $78.827 billion against $54.421 billion in the corresponding nine-month period of the last fiscal.
Non-oil imports were up 31 percent in December at $15.544 billion against $11.786 billion, while cumulatively, such imports were up 25.3 percent during April-December period at $146.982 billion against $117.297 billion.