Trade gap balloons on oil import bill

Despite a 25 per cent increase in exports, an oil import bill pushed up the country's trade deficit to $22.68 billion during April-January 2004-05, as against $13.54 billion during the corresponding period last year.

The surge in trade deficit is mainly on account of imports, particularly oil imports surpassing the growth in exports during the first ten months of the current fiscal, as per trade data released by the commerce and industry ministry. 

Filling in the data
	January	April-January
Export
2003-04	5043.13	48389.85
2004-05	6716.15	60754.46
% growth	33.17	25.55
Import
2003-04	6826.4	61937.79
2004-05	9584.53	83441.55
% growth	40.4	34.72
Trade deficit
2003-04	1783.27	13547.94
2004-05	2868.38	22687.09
% growth	60.84	67.45

Exports during April-January 2004-05 increased by 25.55 per cent to $60.7 billion, while imports during the same period increased by nearly 35 per cent to $83.44 billion.

Oil imports during the first ten months of the current fiscal increased by over 40 per cent to $ 23.46 billion as against $16.74 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports during April-January 2004-05 are estimated at $59.98 billion which is nearly 33 per cent higher than $45.20 billion estimated during the same period the previous year.

During January, the first month of the calender year, exports increased by over 33 per cent to $6.71 billion compared to $5.04 billion in January 2004.

Imports during the month increased by over 40 per cent to $9.58 billion as against $6.82 billion in the same month the previous year.

Higher imports pushed up trade deficit during the month to $2.86 billion from $ 1.78 billion in January 2004.