Representational file image
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak

India’s goods exports shrank for the seventh successive month in August, but the pace of decline eased to 6.86% from double digit contractions in recent months, with shipments worth $34.5 billion in the month.

The merchandise Import bill for August dropped 5.23% year-on-year to $58.64 billion, but was 10.85% higher than July’s $52.9 billion import tally.

Officials said that nearly half of the decline in exports so far this year was driven by the decline in petroleum prices, noting that though export volumes of petroleum products were up 6%, prices were 27% lower than a year ago.

The trade deficit for August dropped 2.8% from last year to $24.16 billion, but was almost 17% over July’s $20.67 billion gap between goods imports and exports.