India recorded a 2% surge in exports in January 2021, marking the second month in a row that outbound trade recorded positive growth after the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdowns dampened global trade through most of 2020.
Imports also grew for the second successive month in January, rising 2% as per quick estimates released by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Non-oil and non-gold imports recorded a sharper growth of 7.5%.
The Ministry added that the trade deficit was estimated at $14.54 billion, almost 5% lower than the $15.3 billion recorded in January 2020. Exports had grown by a marginal 0.14% in December 2020.
Overall exports in the first ten months of 2020-21 remain about 10% lower than the same period a year earlier, while imports have shrunk by 22.8%.
Services exports decline:
The worsening contraction in services exports meant that the services trade surplus recorded a year-on-year decline in December 2020, after a gap of nine months.