India’s July exports rise 81% y/y: Rahul Khullar

NEW DELHI: India’s exports in July rose an annual 81 percent to $29.3 billion, while imports grew 51 percent to $40.4 billion in the same month, Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said on Thursday.

The trade deficit stood at $11.1 billion, Khullar said, widening from $7.7 billion in June.

India’s exports grew a record 37.6 percent in the 2010/11 fiscal year that ended in March, as demand soared for engineering goods, oil products and gems manufactured in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Exports have shown strong growth in this fiscal year as well, but exporters have become jittery following Standard and Poor’s rating downgrade of the United States, which has roiled global markets and renewed fears of another global economic slowdown.

The united States is India’s biggest trade partner in goods and services combined.

Khullar had said on Monday India “would be lucky” to achieve 20 percent annual exports growth in 2011/12, and warned exports growth is expected to slow down from August-September on lingering economic uncertainties in the U.S. and the euro zone.