India's merchandise exports declined 1.05% to US $12.69 billion in December 2008, recoding fall for the third successive month. Meanwhile, the cumulative exports for April-December 2008 moderated 17.1% to US $131.99 billion. On the positive side, the pace of fall in export has been moderating from steep 12.11% in October to 9.89% in November which has further come down to mere 1.05% fall in December. Also, after four months of sequential fall, export has increased 10.3% in December 2008 from November 2008 levels.
The merchandise import increased 8.84% to US $20.256 billion in December 2008, but on m-o-m basis, it continues to decline. The cumulative imports for April-December 2008 moderated 31.5% to US $225.81 billion.
The oil import bill fell steeply by 31% to US $4.71 billion in December 2008, which is the lowest oil bill in a month since February 2007, thanks to crash in crude oil prices.
The trade deficit for December 2008 was US $7.566 billion, which is the lowest in a month in the current fiscal. The trade deficits have continuously been above US $9.7 billion per month in the current fiscal. The cumulative trade deficit increased 59% to US $93.82 billion in April-December 2008. However, the oil import cost accounted for mere 23.3% of the total import bill in December 2008, while its share in cumulative imports bill also eased to 34.9% at US $78.23 billion.
The non-oil imports shot up 31.9% to US $15.544 billion in December 2008, which to some extent erased the gains of steep fall in crude oil imports. The cumulative non-oil import increased 25.3% US $146.98 billion in April-December 2008.
source: Capital Market