Trade deficit eased in Sep to 5-month low

India's merchandise trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low of $20.78 billion in September as imports grew at the slowest pace in six months and exports rose marginally after two months of decline, the official data showed on Wednesday.

- SHREYA NANDI

The trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, had widened to a 10-month high of $29.65 billion in August.

Goods worth $55.36 billion were imported last month, up 1.62 per cent compared to the year-ago period, amid softening global petroleum prices.

Gold imports grew 6.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in September, to $4.39 billion, but contracted 56 per cent sequentially. Gold imports had risen 3 per cent Y-o-Y to touch $10 billion in August due to factors such as stocking ahead of the festive season and the import duty cut from 15 per cent to 6 per cent in July.

Imports of petroleum products contracted 10 per cent to $10.51 billion last month, the data released by the commerce department showed.