February Exports Rise 25.1% to $34.57 Billion; Trade Deficit Widens To $20.88 Billion

India’s exports rose 25.1 per cent to $34.57 in February, while imports jumped 36 per cent to $55.45 billion, widening the trade deficit to $20.88 billion, according to the commerce ministry data on Monday.

Healthy foreign demand for Indian goods, including engineering, petroleum and chemicals pushed exports higher compared to a year ago. While a 69 per cent surge in domestic demand for petroleum and crude oil pushed up imports.

The trade deficit – the difference between imports and exports — widened by $7.76 billion in February, compared to $13.12 billion in February 2021.

“Merchandise exports for the period April-February 2021-22 was $374.81 billion as against $256.55 billion during the period April-February 2020-21, registering a positive growth of 46.09 per cent,” the commerce ministry said.

Imports during the 11-month period rose 59.33 per cent to $550.56 billion. Trade deficit during this period widened to $175.75 billion as against $88.99 billion during April-February 2020-21.

According to the data, gold imports in February dipped by 9.65 per cent to $4.8 billion. Imports of electronic goods rose about 29.53 per cent to $6.27 billion.

Exports of engineering goods, petroleum and chemicals in February increased by 32 per cent, 88.14 per cent and 25.38 per cent to $9.32 billion, $4.64 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively.

Pharmaceutical exports, however, slipped by 1.78 per cent to $1.96 billion in February.