The trade deficit declined to an 18 month low as exports contracted for the third month in a row by 8.8 per cent to $33.88 billion in February owing to slowdown in global demand.
According to newly revealed trade statistics, imports decreased 8.21% to $51.31 billion, while the trade deficit decreased to a low of $17.43 billion for the month. According to trend, India’s products and services exports would surpass $750 billion in 2022–2023, according to Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal.
“Despite the global difficulties, we have maintained the momentum. Exporters have maintained the tempo. Exports of services are performing very well. Trade imbalance has significantly decreased. We will hopefully be doing better,” Barthwal remarked.
He continued by saying that the ministry has already begun setting the goal for the next fiscal year. The president of the FIEO, A. Sakthivel, stated: “We estimate 2022–2023 to conclude with export of $770–780 billion, which would be above $100 billion as opposed to aggregate export of $672 billion recorded in 2021–2022, indicating a significant rise of 15–16%. In addition to having one of the fastest expanding economies, India also ranks well in terms of export performance.
The merchandise trade deficit decreased to an 18-month low in February 2023, thanks to a decline in non-oil, non-gold imports, according to Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA. Positively, non-oil exports increased sequentially, and in February 2023, the rate of YoY decrease also slowed down.
