Trade surplus in services expands to $5.72 billion

MUMBAI: India’s trade surplus from the services sector increased to $5.72 billion in April, up from $4.99 billion in March, provisional data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday showed.

Services sector includes exports in sectors like information technology, receipts from tourism and businesses outsourced. Imports of services could include consultancy fees and also some information technology linked imports.

The Reserve Bank releases monthly data on India’s international trade in services with a lag of around 45 days.

Export receipts from services into India have been broadly between $12 billion and $13 billion since January. RBI numbers show that April receipts increased to $12.90 billion the highest in at least four months, while services imports dropped to $7.18 billion from $7.90 billion in March.