? Trade deficit at US$ 13.87 bn
New Delhi, Sep 2 (Mayank Nigam) Riding high on demand for items such as engineering goods, petroleum products and gems and jewellery, India’s merchandise exports in August 2021 soared 45.17 per cent to US$ 33.14 billion as compared to US$ 22.83 billion in the same month last year. While low base last year due to the pandemic helped sharp increase in August, the outward shipments was higher by 27.5 per cent even when compared with the exports of US$ 25.99 billion in the pre-pandemic month of August 2019. According to preliminary data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday, India’s merchandise imports in August 2021 was US$ 47.01 billion, an increase of 51.4 per cent over US$ 31.03 billion in August 2020 and a rise of 17.95 per cent over US$ 39.85 billion in August 2019.
“The trade deficit in August 2021 was US$ 13.87 billion in compared to the trade deficit of US$ 8.2 billion in August 2020, while it is US$ 55.9 billion during April-August 2021 as compared to US$ 22.7 billion during the same period of the previous year,” said the ministry said. The exports have maintained the growth momentum for the last 9-10 months now with monthly exports remaining above US$ 30 billion for six straight months. It has been the key growth driver supporting the economy which is recovering gradually from the pandemic. It surged to US$ 35.43 billion in July 2021 from US$ 23.64 billion in July 2020, exhibiting a positive growth of 49.85 per cent. Value of non-petroleum exports in August 2021 was 28.58 US$ billion, registering a positive growth of 36.57 per cent over non-petroleum exports of US$ 20.93 billion in August 2020 and a positive growth of 25.44 per cent over non-petroleum exports of US$ 22.78 billion in August 2019. Value of non-petroleum imports was US$ 35.37 billion in August 2021 with a positive growth of 43.88 per cent over non-petroleum imports of US$ 24.58 billion in August 2020 and had a positive growth of 22.58 per cent only over non-petroleum imports of USD 28.85 billion in August 2019.
Top 10 major commodity groups, covering more than 80 per cent of total exports, which registered positive year-on-year growth during August included engineering goods (58.79 per cent), petroleum products (139.78 per cent), gems and jewellery (88.04 per cent), organic and inorganic chemicals (35.75 per cent), drugs and pharmaceuticals (1.21 per cent), cotton yarn/fabrics/madeups and handloom products (55.62 per cent) and electronic goods (31.49 per cent). Major commodity groups which accounted for bulk of imports included petroleum and crude products, gold, electronic goods, machinery, electrical and non-electrical, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones.