India's Trade Deficit and Export-Import Overview

India's trade deficit for December widened to $21.94 billion, compared to $18.76 billion in the previous year, with merchandise exports contracting for the second consecutive month, showing a 0.99% year-on-year decline to $38.01 billion.

• Gold imports in December were valued at $4.7 billion.
• Merchandise trade deficit showed a reduction compared to November.
• The government's revision of November's gold import values, due to a double counting issue, brought down the trade deficit to $32.8 billion from an earlier $37.8 billion.
• December 2023 saw gold imports worth $3 billion, with overall imports increasing by 5% year-on-year to $59.95 billion.

Export Growth and Challenges

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal expressed optimism about export growth, suggesting that exports could exceed $800 billion, with current figures nearing $200 billion per quarter.

• India's goods and services exports for October-December totaled $208 billion.
• Key sectors like petroleum, gems and jewellery, and chemicals saw a contraction in December.
• Pertinent challenges included commodity and metal price volatility, trade disruptions, and geopolitical tensions affecting logistics.

Specific Export Sector Insights

• Petroleum product exports fell by 28.62% in December, with a 20.84% decline year-on-year for the fiscal year-to-date.
• Electronics goods exports reached a 24-month high of $3.5 billion in December.
• Readymade garments exports grew by 12.8%, reaching $1.46 billion.

International Trade Agreements

India is actively engaging in discussions to strengthen international trade agreements.

• Talks with the UK on a proposed foreign trade agreement are scheduled for early February.
• Negotiations to review the free trade agreement with ASEAN commence on February 10 in Indonesia.
• The next round of FTA talks with the EU is scheduled for March 10-14 in Brussels.
• India and the Eurasian Economic Union, comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, are finalizing terms for a free trade agreement.