India's merchandise trade deficit narrowed to the lowest in three months in December, led by lower exports.
In absolute terms, the trade gap narrowed to $21.9 billion in December, compared to $31.8 billion in November, according to a press briefing by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.
December exports fell by 1% year-on-year to $38 billion.
December imports rose 4.9% year-on-year to $59.95 billion.
Overall exports, including services, rose to about $70.7 billion in December, while imports rose to $77.4 billion, resulting in a deficit of $6.8 billion.
Trade growth has been good in December, with India performing better than the world in terms of merchandise and services exports, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said at a press briefing.
An unprecedented fall in the price of petroleum products has led to a decline in merchandise exports, with petroleum prices impacting export growth, he said, adding that India's performance is better in non-petroleum exports. Meanwhile, gold imports also fell from $9.8 billion in November to $4.7 billion in December. Data released for November saw an unusual surge, which the government eventually attributing to erroneous calculations, with double counting in warehouses. A change in methodology in July was likely to have been the cause for the error.
Commenting on that, the commerce secretary said that the ministry had created SOPs to ensure better coordination between DGCIS, CBIC's DG Systems for trade data reporting.
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