India exported goods worth US$38.19 billion in April 2022, up 24.2% from a year ago but 9.5% down from the previous month’s record exports of US$42.2 billion, according to official estimates , which were released on Tuesday.
The trade deficit widened to $20.07 billion from $18.5 billion in March as imports grew faster to $58.26 billion, up 26.6% from April 2021. Gold imports fell in April fell 73% year-on-year to just $1.7 billion, but coal imports more than doubled to over $4.7 billion from $2 billion a year ago, while petroleum product imports rose 81, 2% to over $19.5 billion.
Among the top 10 exports, gems and jewelry exports fell a modest 2.1% in April, while rice exports fell 14.24%. Engineering goods continued to see healthy growth in exports, with outbound shipments rising 15.4% to $9.2 billion in April.
Ready-made clothing exports increased by 16.4% to US$1.5 billion from April 2021, but were 13.2% lower than in March 2022. Similarly, organic chemicals exports increased by 26.7% yoy , but fell 8.1% mom to just over $2.5 billion.
India’s exports hit a record $420 billion in 2021-22 and the government is in the process of setting a higher target for this year. Imports had also hit a new high last year, rising 55% from 2020-21 levels to about $612 billion.
