Trade gap declines to $ 97 bn in Apr-Feb 2010-11

With exports growing at a much faster rate than imports, India's trade deficit for April-February 2010-11 declined to $ 97.06 billion from $100.24 billion in the same period previous year.

With exports growing at a much faster rate than imports, India's trade deficit for April-February 2010-11 declined to $ 97.06 billion from $ 100.24 billion in the same period previous year.

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Decline in trade gap, augurs well for the country's current account deficit (CAD), which has come down to 20.49 per cent to $ 9.7 billion in the October-December quarter over the same period last year.

CAD, which includes deficit in external trade of goods, and services, besides net investment income, stood at 2.9$ of GDP last fiscal.

Merchandise exports for the 11 month period of 2010-11 went up by 31$ to $ 208 billion, while expansion in imports was much slower at 18$ to $ 305.3 billion over the same period last year.

In February, the trade deficit reduced to $ 8.1 billion from $ 10.4 billion a year ago, according to the Commerce Ministry data released on Friday.

In 2010-11, the trade gap is expected at $ 110 billion as compared to $ 102 billion in 2009-10, trade experts said.