Exports up 23 per cent in Sept; rising imports leave big trade gap

NEW DELHI: India's exports shot up by 23.2 per cent year-on-year to $18.02 billion in September this fiscal, while faster import expansion increased concerns over the widening trade gap.

Imports for September grew by annual 26.1 per cent to $27.14 billion, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said in New Delhi on Monday.

For the first half of the fiscal 2010-11, exports aggregated to $103.30 billion increasing by 27.6 per cent.

The cumulative imports for this period went up to $166.5 billion leaving a large trade gap of $63.2 billion.

The trade deficit for September alone was $9.12 billion, the secretary said.

The government has been monitoring the trade deficit, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Saturday.

Khullar attributed increase in exports to a "very strong" low base of comparison last fiscal, when the global trade was hit by economic slowdown worldwide.

He said September was the "first month in which, exports were higher than (for a month) 2008-09".