The country’s goods imports increased at a faster rate than exports in April-March 2021-22, posting a 54.71 per cent rise (year-on-year) to $610.22 billion, driven by sectors such as petroleum, electronics, gold, coal and machinery.

This widened the trade deficit by 87 per cent to $192.41 billion, per preliminary data issued by the government on Monday.

Exports at $417.81 b

Total exports in fiscal year 2021-22 increased to a record high of $417.81 billion, which was about 43 per cent higher than exports in the previous fiscal, with a surge in outbound shipments of items such as petroleum products, engineering goods, electronics, agriculture produce, textiles and chemicals.

In March 2022, goods imports were valued at $59.07 billion, registering an increase of 20.79 per cent over March 2021. Exports during the month crossed $40 billion for the first time, growing 14.53 per cent over exports in March 2021. Trade deficit was at $18.69 billion in March 2022, which was 36.97 per cent higher than March 2021.

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The value of non-petroleum exports in March 2022 was $33 billion, registering a growth of 4.28 per cent over the same month a year ago. Non-petroleum import was valued at $40.66 billion during March 2022, an increase of 5.26 per cent over March 2021. The figures indicate that much of the increase in both exports and imports of goods in March 2022 could be attributed to increase in trade of petroleum good.

In April-March 2021-22, non-petroleum exports increased by 32.6 per cent to $ 352.76 billion while non-petroleum imports rose 44.2 per cent to $449.54 billion.

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