India's merchandise exports rose by 10.1% to US$25.4bn in January while imports during the month jumped 20.3% to US$40.1bn, Commerce Secretary, Dr. Rahul Khullar said on Thursday.
As a result, the trade deficit for January stood at US$14.7bn.
Exports during April-January 2011-12 climbed 23.5% to US$242.8bn, while imports during the period were up 29.4% to US$391.5bn, Dr. Khullar said.
The trade gap in the first 10 months of FY12 widened to US$148.7bn.
India's trade gap is likely to narrow in the next two months, the Commerce Secretary said.
These are provisional data and subject to revision.
"There is still a shroud of uncertainty as to whether Europe is out of the woods yet or not," Khullar told reporters.
"FY12 is going to be tough," he said, but ruled out any fiscal stimulus to support the exporters, citing the Government's strained finances.
India is on track to achieve its FY12 export target of US$300bn compared with US$246bn in the previous fiscal year.
Khullar said that FY12 trade gap will touch US$160bn, higher than his earlier estimate of ~US$150 bn. The shortfall last year was US$104bn.
During April-January 2011-12, the following sectors have done well viz., Engineering (US$49.7bn) with a growth rate of 21%; Petroleum & Oil Products (US$48.9bn - 50.1%); Gems & Jewellery registered a growth of 33% (US$37bn); Drugs and Pharmaceuticals 21.1% (US$10.20bn; Leather 23.4% (US$3.8bn) Cotton Yarn and Fabric Made-ups 14.7% (US$5.59bn); Electronics grew by 13.4% (US$7.3bn); Readymade Garments rose by 21.5% (US$10.9bn), Other Basic Chemicals grew by 29.6% (US$8.8bn).
As regards imports, the growth estimates on the following sectors are: POL 38.8% (US$117.9bn); Gold and Silver 46.6% (US$50bn); Machinery 25.8% (US$28.8bn), Electronics 22.9% (US$27.8bn), Organic & Inorganic Chemicals 23.6% (US$15.8bn) and Coal 69% (US$14.1bn).