India's trade deficit narrows in March, exports rise

Trade deficit narrows: India's merchandise trade deficit in March significantly narrowed to $15.60 billion, with merchandise exports reaching $41.68 billion while imports fell to $57.28 billion, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. This improvement comes after February's trade deficit stood at $18.71 billion, with exports at $41.40 billion and imports at $60.11 billion.

In the services sector, exports in March were $28.54 billion, down from February's $32.35 billion, while imports were $15.84 billion compared to the previous month's $15.39 billion.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal highlighted the challenges faced in the previous fiscal year due to conflicts such as Ukraine-Russia and issues in the Red Sea, along with global recessionary trends. Despite these challenges, India's trade deficit for FY24 has shown significant improvement.

Barthwal also mentioned that India is monitoring the impact of the Iran-Israel conflict on trade.

(with Reuters inputs)