In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of increasing the country’s share in global trade to 4 per cent, India recorded a 9.1 per cent increase in merchandise exports to USD 38.13 billion in May.

While the exports grew, the imports also increased 7.7 per cent to USD 61.91 billion during the month as compared to last year, according the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

The Modi government has set a target of exports reaching USD 1.58 trillion by 2030, which could help double India’s exports in global trade to more than 4 per cent.

According to the official data, despite the exports increasing faster than imports, the merchandise trade deficit surged to a seven-month high of USD 23.78 billion during the month under review.

“This increase in deficit was 5.5 per cent higher than that recorded in May 2023, and 24.5 per cent over April’s trade gap of USD 19.1 billion,” it said.

According to the Ministry, the deficit in April was the highest in four months. Compared with April, May’s import bill was 14.4 per cent higher, while the value of exports rose 8.9 per cent.

The data further revealed that engineering goods witnessed a 7.4 per cent growth in May, with double-digit increase in several segments, including electronics (23 per cent), drugs and pharma products (10.45 per cent), and plastics and linoleum (16.6 per cent).

Imports of gold hit a three-month high of USD 3.33 billion in May, although this was 9.7 per cent lower than the gold import bill a year ago.