India's merchandise exports in October surged 42.33 per cent to $35.47 billion on the back of good performance by the engineering and petroleum sectors, as per provisional data released by the government on Monday.
The exports stood at $24.92 billion in October 2020 and $26.23 billion in October 2019.
“India's merchandise exports in October 2021 was $35.47 billion, an increase of 42.33 per cent over $24.92 billion in October 2020 and an increase of 35.21 per cent over $26.23 billion in October 2019,” as per an official statement.
The merchandise imports surged 62.49 per cent to $55.37 billion from $34.07 billion in October 2020. It was $37.99 billion in October 2019.
As per the data, the trade deficit in October 2021 was $19.9 billion as gold imports almost doubled to $5.1 billion.
The gap between imports and exports have totalled $98.71 billion during April-October 2021.
Outward shipments of engineering goods, which accounted for 28.19 per cent of total exports in October, increased 50.7 per cent year-on-year to $9.38 billion.
Exports of petroleum products too were up 231.63 per cent on annual basis at $5.19 billion.
Another major chunk of exports, which comes from the gems and jewellery sector, rose 44.24 per cent to $4.22 billion.
Exports from the labour-intensive textiles sector, which accounts for 3.5 per cent of the total outward shipments, increased by 6.4 per cent to $1.25 billion in October.
India also exported electronic goods worth $1.34 billion during the month under review against $966 million in October 2020.
On the import front, the inbound shipments of 'petroleum, crude and products' soared 140.5 per cent to $14.43 billion from $6 billion in October 2020.
Import of electronic goods stood at $6.81 billion (up 23 per cent) and machinery, electrical and non-electrical segment stood at $3.54 billion (up 41.78 per cent).
As per the provisional data, imports of 'coal, coke and briquettes' increased 118.92 per cent in October this year to $3.31 billion.
The updated trade data will be released later in the month.
The gold imports stood at $5.1 billion this October compared to $2.49 billion in the year-ago month, an increase of 104.25 per cent.
The vegetable oil imports were valued at $1.62 billion during October 2021, up 59.59 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
India's merchandise exports in April-October 2021 was $232.58 billion, a rise of 54.51 per cent over $150.53 billion in the year-ago period.
It was $185.4 billion in April-October 2019.
During April-October 2021, the imports were $331.29 billion, an increase of 78.71 per cent over $185.38 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
It also shows a rise of 15.81 per cent over $286.07 billion in April-October 2019.
The value of non-petroleum exports in October 2021 was 30.27 $billion, registering a positive growth of 29.63 per cent over non-petroleum exports of $23.35 billion in the year-ago month.
Also, the value of non-petroleum imports was $40.94 billion, a growth of 45.82 per cent over $28.07 billion in October 2020.
Meanwhile, data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed exports of services stood at $20.68 billion during September, registering a growth of 22 per cent over the corresponding month of the previous fiscal.
Services imports were valued at $12.21 billion during September 2021, up 25 per cent over the same month of last year.
Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters
