India’s merchandise exports in April touch $30.21 billion

Trade deficit for first month of 2021-22 stands at $15.24 billion

India’s merchandise exports in April 2021 were $30.21 billion, 197% higher than a year ago, when exports had collapsed to $10.17 billion in the middle of the national lockdown. April’s exports, however, constituted a 16% rise over April 2019. Merchandise imports rose 166% in April to $45.45 billion from a year ago, reflecting a 7.22% rise over the same month’s imports in pre-COVID 2019. Consequently, India’s trade deficit for the first month of 2021-22 stood at $15.24 billion, 120.3% over last April, but was 6.8% lower than the deficit in April 2019. Excluding petroleum and gems and jewellery sector exports, that the government has stressed entail little value addition, exports grew by over 164% to $23.51 billion, led by labour-intensive sectors such as jute, carpets, handicrafts and leather.