India’s external trade data for the first month, April, of the 2024-25 financial year has been recently released (Table 1). Table 1 India’s External Trade for April 20241Data in Table 1 suggest that while merchandise trade increased marginally over the corresponding period last year, the services exports exhibited a healthy growth of 14.7 percent. Moreover, while merchandise trade exhibited a deficit of USD 19.6 billion, services trade exhibited a surplus of USD 12.6 billion. Even then, the total external trade exhibited a deficit of USD 6.52 billion, larger than USD 2.62 billion last year. The Main MessageThe above analysis makes it abundantly clear that India’s monthly (and Annual) external trade data should not be analysed only from the merchandise trade perspective.

Source: Economic Times May 18, 2024 15:46 UTC