India's January-March current account balance at 0.6% surplus riding on high service exports
Mumbai: India's current account balance recorded a surplus in the January-March quarter, driven largely by higher service exports and private transfer receipts, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The surplus amounted to $5.7 billion, equivalent to 0.6 percent of the GDP, for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023-24.
This is a major turnaround from the preceding quarter, which saw a deficit of $8.7 billion or 1 percent of GDP.
A year earlier, in the same quarter, there was a deficit of $1.3 billion, representing 0.2 percent of GDP.
For the full fiscal year, the current account deficit narrowed to $23.2 billion, or 0.7 percent of GDP, compared to $67 billion, or 2 percent of GDP, in the previous year.
This improvement was largely due to a reduced merchandise trade deficit.
The RBI highlighted that services exports grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year in the fourth fiscal quarter, driven by increased exports of software, travel, and business services.
Net services receipts totaled $42.7 billion, up from $39.1 billion a year earlier, contributing positively to the current account surplus.
In terms of merchandise trade, the deficit narrowed to $50.9 billion in the quarter from $52.6 billion a year ago.
The RBI also noted that the merchandise trade deficit for May was $23.78 billion, up from $19.1 billion in April.
Private transfer receipts, primarily remittances from Indians working overseas, saw a notable increase of 11.9 percent year-on-year to reach $32 billion.
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