NEW DELHI: Exports dipped for the 14th month in a row, down 13.6 per cent in January to $21 billion due to fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods, although trade deficit showed improvement.

Imports shrank 11 per cent to $28.71 billion last month, resulting in a trade deficit of $7.63 billion, lowest in eleven months. In February last year, the deficit was $6.85 billion.

The deficit would have been lower if gold imports hadn’t shot up 85.16 per cent last month to $2.91 billion. Overseas shipments of petroleum products shrank 35.18 per cent to $1.95 billion in January, while that of engineering goods declined by 27.6 per cent to 4.98 million. For the first 10 months of the current fiscal, cumulative exports declined by 17.65 per cent to $217.67 billion, as against $264.32 billion in April-January period of 2014-15. As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, imports dipped by 15.46 per cent to $324.52 billion for the 10 months, leaving a trade deficit of $106.8 billion. The trade gap was $119.55 billion in April-January 2014-15. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that going by the trend, “we may end up the fiscal with around $260 billion”. “Problem of transfer of shipping bill, delay in release of duty drawback and interest subsidy has seriously affected the liquidity of exporters,” it said in a statement. Co-Chairman – CII National Committee on International Trade Policy and Exports Sanjay Budhia said that duty drawback rates should be restored to their original level to compensate for all taxes, duties to boost exports. Oil imports last month were valued at $5.02 billion – 39.01 per cent lower than the same month last year. Non-oil imports too dipped by 1.4 per cent to $23.68 billion. — PTI