Coal news and updates

India’s foreign trade deficit up 27% on exports fall

Despite a staggering 33.19% decline in the crude oil import bill, India’s December 2015 foreign trade deficit surged by 27% to $11,664 million from $9178.81 million in December 2014 due to a sharp 14.75% decline in exports, an official release said.

Exports during the month fell to $22,297.48 million from a high $26,154.46 million last year in line with the trend of falling exports of major world economies like the US, European Union and China where exports declined by 10.30%, 10.83% and 6.94% respectively, the release said.

Though imports too declined during the month, the pace of decline in imports at 3.88% to $33961.48 million from $35,333.27 million was not enough to prevent the surge in trade deficit.

Oil imports during the month were valued at $6,656.74 million compared to $9,963.44 million in the corresponding month of last year while non-oil imports increased by 7.63% to $27,304.74 million from $25,369.83 million last year.

Trade deficit during the first nine months of 2015-16 was, however, down 11.17% at $99,207.75 million as compared to a deficit of $111,685.04 million during the corresponding period of 2014-15.

Total exports during the nine-month period of 2015-16 stood at $196,603.94 million, down 18.06% compared to $239,928.91 million during the same period of 2014-15 while imports declined 15.87% to $295,811.69 million from $351,613.95 million last year.

The data revealed that the country’s oil import bill during the first nine months of the current financial year fell by 41.60% to $68,068.20 million from a high of $116,559.48 million in the same period of the previous financial year.

Non-oil imports too fell by 3.11% to $227,743.49 million from $235,054.47 million in the period under review.