India’s merchandise exports touch $36.92 billion in January

New Delhi: Merchandise exports from India in January stood at $36.92 billion. Meanwhile, imports were $54.41 billion in last month.  In December 2023, merchandise exports had stood at $38.45 billion, while imports stood at $58.25 billion. The decline in exports is mainly due to armed conflict in the Red Sea.

The trade deficit narrowed almost 12% in January compared with the previous month. The merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $17.49 billion in January. It was $19.80 billion in December. Overall trade deficit, including merchandise and services, stood at $70.43 billion during the April 2023-January 2024 period, down from $111.99 billion in the year-ago period.  Trade deficit is the difference between imports and exports.

In January 2024, services exports stood at $32.80 billion, while imports were $16.05 billion. In December 2023, services exports had stood at $27.88 billion and imports were $13.25 billion.

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India’s overall exports (merchandise and services combined) in January 2024 stood at $69.72 billion. It witnessed a positive growth of 9.28 per cent over January 2023. Overall imports in January 2024 is estimated to be $70.46 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 4.15 per cent over January 2023.

On an annual basis, merchandise exports grew by 3.13% during January, while imports also rose about 3% during this period. Services exports and imports rose annually by 17.14% and 8.23%, respectively, during January.

During April-January 2023-24, India’s overall exports stood at $638.37 billion, exhibiting a negative growth of (-) 0.19 per cent over April-January 2022-23. Overall imports in April-January 2023-24 were at $708.79 billion, exhibiting a negative growth of (-) 5.69 per cent over April-January 2022-23.

During the April-January 2023-24 period, India’s top export destinations were Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, China, UAE, Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia. Among the import destinations, Russia stood at the top with a 44.76% share in India’s import basket, followed by Switzerland, China, Korea, Singapore, UAE, etc.