Analysts say goods exports are likely to pick up this year. (Representative image)
India’s goods exports rose 9.1 percent to $38.13 billion in May from a year earlier, helped by an increase in shipments of tech goods, commercial vehicles and smartphones, government data showed on Friday.
Imports of goods rose 7.7 percent year-on-year to $61.91 billion in the same month, widening the trade deficit to $23.78 billion. Economists had expected a deficit of $19.5 billion, according to a Reuters poll.
In April, the trade deficit was $19.1 billion.
Analysts say goods exports – which shrank 3.1 percent to $437 billion in the previous fiscal year – are likely to pick up this year, helped by an expected rebound in global trade, government incentives for manufacturing and easing domestic inflation.
Services exports in May were estimated at $30.16 billion and imports at $17.28 billion, compared to $30.33 billion and $16.63 billion respectively in April.
Asia’s third-largest economy grew faster than expected at 7.8 percent in the January-March quarter, helped by strong performance in the manufacturing sector, and economists expect the momentum to continue this year.
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: June 14, 2024 | 3:02 PM IST