India's Oct merchandise trade deficit widens to record level as gold imports jump by 95% YoY
New Delhi: India's merchandise trade deficit widened to an all-time high level in October, bolstered by a 95 percent jump in gold imports, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.
The data issued by the ministry revealed that India's goods trade deficit soared to $31.46 billion in October in comparison to $26.3 billion in the corresponding month last fiscal.
In October, India imported gold worth $7.2 billion, up from $3.7 billion in the -year-ago period.
India, the largest global purchaser of gold, witnessed an uptick in the import of the precious metal ahead of Diwali.
In the current fiscal year 2023-24, gold imports have gone up by 5.5 percent to $29.48 billion.
Although October marked a record high in the merchandise trade deficit, exports showed a year-on-year growth of 6.2 percent to $33.57 billion.
In contrast, imports surged by 12.3 percent to $65.03 billion during the same period.
For the April-October period, year-on-year figures showed a 7 percent decline in merchandise exports at $244.89 billion, while imports dropped by 8.95 percent, amounting to $391.96 billion.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
