Trade deficit widens in February, exports up 22.36%

India's exports rose 22.36% to $33.81 billion in February, led by engineering, petroleum and chemicals, preliminary data released by the commerce and industry ministry Wednesday showed.

Imports grew 34.9% to $55 billion on the back of a sharp 66.56% jump in oil imports to $15 billion, widening the trade deficit to $13.12 billion.

"A rebound in oil and gold demand amid the waning of the third wave, along with rising global commodity prices fanned by escalating geopolitical tensions, boosted imports and bloated the merchandise trade deficit above $21 billion in February," said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar.


As per the statement, merchandise exports in April-February FY22 were $374.05 billion, up 45.8% on-year while imports rose 59.21% to $550.12 billion.

"The trend so far has been quite impressive. Uncertainty has arisen in recent weeks on account of geopolitical situations involving Russia and Ukraine but its impact on engineering goods exports is yet to be assessed," said EEPC India chairman Mahesh Desai.

Gold imports shrank 11.45% on-year but they nearly doubled sequentially in February, as curbs eased across the country.

"With monthly exports crossing the $30 billion mark for 11th consecutive time during the fiscal, we are on course to cross the $400 billion exports target for the fiscal," said A Sakthivel, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

Non-oil, non-gold, silver and precious metals imports-a measure of the strength of domestic demand-were $31.61 billion in February, up 31.66% on-year.

"Among the CIS countries, Russia is the biggest export market for Indian engineering goods. Exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system would, therefore, mean delayed payment realisation for exporters," Desai said.