By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: There was a double-digit fall in percentage export figures for the period April-January 2020-2021 in a y-o-y comparison during the same period in the previous years on the merchandise trade front. The export figure for April-January 2020-21 was estimated to stand at USD 396.60 billion, registering a fall of 10.63% over the previous year’s figures during the same period. The corresponding statistics for imports too have registered a negative growth to the tune of 22.80%. The import figures for April January 2020-21 stood at USD 398.47 billion.
While still on the merchandise trade front, the calculations for the month of January 2021 alone on the export front stood marginally higher than that of January 2020. The January 2021 figures stood at USD 27.45 billion as compared to USD 25.8 billion in January 2020. There is a similar trend in import figures for the month of January 2021 alone standing at USD 41.99 billion compared to the January 2020 figure of USD 41.15 billion.
In the services sector, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the export figures for December 2020 stood at USD 18.72 billion, registering a fall of 6.41%, y-o-y. The imports for the same period in 2020 stood at USD 11.50 billion registering a fall of 8.40%, y-o-y.
The trade deficit for January 2021 stood at USD 14.54 billion in comparison with y-o-y for the same period in 2020, USD 15.30 billion, a 4.95% dip on the merchandise front. The figures for the trade deficit in the services sector stood at USD 7.22 billion. The overall deficit, taking merchandise and services together for the period April-January 2021 is estimated to stand at USD 1.87 billion. The figure for the corresponding period in the previous year, stood at USD 72.40 billion.
