Continuing its declining trend, India's exports shrank by about 20.19 per cent in May to $22.34 billion, marking a fall for the sixth straight month.
The slump in exports is mainly due to global slowdown, dip in crude oil prices and rupee appreciation.
In May 2014, the country's merchandise exports stood at $27.99 billion.
The last time exports registered a positive growth was in November last year when it expanded 7.27 per cent.
The main exporting sectors, including petroleum products, gems and jewellery, engineering and chemicals reported a negative growth in April. Imports, too, declined 16.52 per cent to $32.75 billion.
Trade deficit narrowed to $ 10.4 billion in the month under review compared with $11.23 billion in May 2014, according to data released by the commerce ministry.
Oil imports dropped 40.97 per cent in May to $ 8.53 billion. Non-oil imports too came down by 2.24 per cent to $24.21 billion.
Gold imports, however, grew 10.47 per cent to $ 2.42 billion in May. During April-May 2015, exports fell 17.21 per cent to $ 44.4 billion.
Imports, too, shrank 12.2 per cent to $ 65.8 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $21.39 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal.
In March, country's exports contracted 21 per cent, the biggest fall in the last six years. India has missed the annual exports target of $340 billion for 2014-15, Last year, exports stood at $310.5 billion.
Photograph: Reuters
