New Delhi : India’s exports rose 4.32 per cent in January to $ 22.11 billion mainly due to increase in shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods and iron ore even as trade deficit widened to $ 9.84 billion.
Gold imports slipped by 29.94 per cent to $ 2.04 billion in January from $ 2.91 billion in the same month last year as demand declined following cash crunch post demonetisation. As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, growth in exports last month was lower than 5.72 per cent recorded in December.
Exports totalled $ 220.92 billion for the April-January period of the current fiscal, up about 1 per cent over the year-ago shipments.
The data revealed that imports widened to $ 31.95 billion in January, up 10.7 per cent from the same month last fiscal, reports PTI. Higher imports took the trade deficit to $ 9.84 billion as against USD 7.66 billion in January 2016.