Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. The country's trade deficit has increased in the month of May as it was recorded as 22.12 billion dollars. So, in the month of April 2023, this deficit was 15.247 billion dollars. After December 2022, this is the highest trade deficit in the last five months. The trade deficit stood at $23.76 billion in December 2022. Whereas, last year in May 2022 trade deficit was recorded at 24.29 billion dollars. In May 2023, imports declined by 6.6 percent to trade at $57.1 billion. Whereas, exports decreased by 10.3 percent and traded at $34.98 billion. Export trade in the month of April was 34.66 billion dollars. This means that there is an increase in exports compared to the month of April.

difficulties in global trade continued

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that difficulties in global trade persisted. The Ministry of Commerce and DPIIT are working on a strategy to increase exports with special focus on 40 countries. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, if exports of services are also added, the total exports in May 2023 rose to $60.29 billion. Last year, it was 64.13 billion dollars in the month of May 2022. Including services, imports stood at $70.64 billion in May 2023, up from $76.32 billion in May 2022 a year ago.

Exports of electronics went up

Looking at the services export figures, the value of services exports in May 2023 stood at $25.30 billion against 25.13 billion in May 2022. Import of services stood at $13.53 billion in May 2023 against 15.20 billion in May 2022. Combining services and goods, the trade deficit in May 2023 is $10.35 billion. A year ago this figure was 12.20 billion dollars. According to the data, exports of electronics have seen a jump of 73.96 percent in May. So, this month the total exports have been 2.42 billion dollars. In May 2022, exports were worth $1.39 billion. If the trade deficit increases, it also affects the foreign reserves. Therefore, the government tries to ensure that the import-export deficit is not too high.