Reduction in oil import bill narrows down India’s trade deficit in Nov

CHENNAI: The reduction in oil import bill resulted in narrowing of India's trade deficit in Novermber as compared to October, said Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt Ltd.

The trade deficit narrowed month-on-month (MoM) in November to $23.89 billion as against $27.58 billion in October, while up only 13 per cent year-on-year (YoY), said Amnish Aggarwal, Head-Research, Prabhudas Lilladher.

According to Aggarwal, the dip was largely on account of decline in imports led by sequential decline in oil imports from $18.2 billion to $15.7 billion.

On a YoY basis, imports grew by 5 per cent while exports remained flattish.

India's exports exhibited a positive YoY growth in 15 out of 30 sectors in November and imports surged in 19 out of 30 sectors YoY.

In the exports category, electronic goods (54.48 per cent), rice (19.16 per cent), ceramic products & glassware (22.64 per cent), fruits and vegetables (25.01 per cent), cereal preparations & miscellaneous processed (22.75 per cent), other cereals (53.78 per cent), oil seeds (38.83 per cent), oil meals (17.55 per cent), tobacco (101.02 per cent), and tea (27.03 per cent) recorded positive growth.

Oil imports growth slowed down to 11 per cent YoY to $15.7 billio, while down 13 per cent MoM.

Non-oil and non-gold imports also slowed to 7 per cent to $36.7 billion, while gold imports were down YoY by 23 per cent and down by 12 per cent MoM to $3.6 billion, Prabhudas Lilladher report notes.

According to the report, services trade balance continued to show resilience and grew by 59 per cent YoY to $11.1 billion in November supported by 27 per cent growth in exports while imports grew by 7 per cent.

Overall trade balance, comprising merchandise and services, stood at $11.1 billion with exports at $58.22 billion growing at 10.97 per cent YoY.

Total imports were at $69.33 billion, up 5.6 per cent growth over November 21, Prabhudas Lilladher said.