India’s goods trade deficit widened to a record $26.18 billion in June, higher than the government’s previous estimate of $25.63 billion, after the Commerce Ministry raised its import and export data for the month.

While goods exports rose 23.5% year-on-year in June to more than $40.1 billion (preliminary estimate of $38.0 billion), imports rose 57.5% to $66.3 billion due to higher purchases of coal, gold and petroleum products.

The record monthly goods trade deficit was $24.3 billion in May. Last month’s trade deficit was nearly triple the $9.6 billion deficit recorded in June 2021.

As previously estimated, the import surge was driven by coal, gold and petroleum products, but each had significant upward revisions. Coal imports nearly quadrupled to $6.76 billion, while gold imports nearly tripled to more than $2.7 billion. Oil imports rose 99.5% to $21.3 billion.

Excluding oil, gems and jewellery, imports rose 38.3% to $38.53 billion in June. Excluding the same product category from the export data meant that exports of other products rose by single digits, up 8.65% to about $28 billion.
In the export basket, shipments of engineered products and pharmaceuticals, previously estimated to decline, rose 3% and 4.8%, respectively.

Oil exports rose 119% to $8.6 billion, while electronics exports rose 60.7% to $1.67 billion. Rice exports jumped 43% to more than $1 billion, while exports from the employment-intensive apparel industry grew 50%. Among India’s top 10 exports, cotton yarn and handloom products, as well as plastics and linoleum, contracted by 19.5% and 20%, respectively.

As a result, goods exports rose 24.5% to $118.96 billion in the first quarter of 2022-23, while imports rose 49.5% to $189.76 billion. The trade deficit widened to $70.8 billion in the quarter.