Following two consecutive months of double-digit growth in merchandise exports, the pace slowed down to 7.33 per cent in July, with shipments of $27.72 billion, compared to the same month last year.

“Gems & jewellery, electronics and cotton textiles continue to be a cause of concern. Drop in their growth is pulling down overall exports,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations chief Rafeeque Ahmed said.

Imports during the month rose 4.25 per cent to $39.95 billion, mainly due to increase in shipments of electronic goods, metals, minerals and plastics, while an easing of import procedure for gold checked its sharp fall, a Commerce Ministry statement said.

Trade deficit in July was at $12.2 billion – the highest this fiscal – although it was slightly lower than the deficit corresponding month last fiscal.

Services exports data for June released by RBI showed to $12.97 billion, while imports were at $7.19 billion creating a trade surplus of $5.77 billion.

Despite a few sectors playing spoil sport, strong growth in engineering goods, petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, leather and chemicals ensured that exports continued to rise for the fourth straight month.

Global outlook

Exporters are hopeful that with an improvement in the global trade scenario, things would turn better in the coming months. India missed its goods export target of $325 billion for 2013-14 due to the adverse global demand with shipments during the year posting a rise of 3.98 per cent to $312.35 billion.

Import of project goods, transport equipment and machine tools declined in July, reflecting a slowdown in manufacturing activity. Gold imports declined 26.39 per cent to $1.8 billion. Oil imports in July were 12.75 per cent higher at $14.35 billion.

In April-July 2014, exports increased 8.62 per cent to $107.83 billion while imports shrank 3.80 per cent to $153.15 billion. The trade deficit in the first four months of the fiscal was at $45.31 billion.

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