Trade deficit widens to record high

At $14.9 billion, November gold imports were more than double the level recorded in October and up 331% on year.

Overall imports in the previous month were more than double the exports, which declined 4.9% on year to $32.11 billion. The decline in outbound shipments was largely due to a 49.7% fall in exports of petroleum products to $3.7 billion from $7.3 billion a year ago. Last month also saw services exports ($35.67 billion) surpassing merchandise shipments ($32.11 billion) for the first time.

The record November trade deficit could lead to a sharp widening of the current account deficit (CAD) to 2.6-2.8% of GDP in Q3FY25, analysts said. Earlier estimates of CAD for the quarter were around 2%.

"More than a 30% year-on-year increase in gold prices is a large contributor to high gold imports numbers. The fall in prices of crude oil this year has resulted in lower imports of petroleum products in value terms though shipments have grown in volume terms," commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters.

Non-petroleum exports in November were up $28.4 billion on year.