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Coal, Crude,
Electronics and Lead Import Growth
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.