Exports up 3.93% in May; trade deficit at $15.36 bn

New Delhi: India's exports grew by 3.93 per cent to USD 30 billion in May on account of healthy growth in sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and engineering, according to a commerce ministry data released Friday.

Imports too rose by 4.31 per cent to USD 45.35 billion, widening the trade deficit to USD 15.36 billion in May. The deficit, the difference between exports and imports, was USD 14.62 billion in May 2018. Oil imports rose by 8.23 per cent to USD 12.44 billion and non-oil imports expanded by 2.9 per cent to USD 32.91 billion during the month under review.

Gold imports rose by 37.43 per cent to USD 4.78 billion. Cumulatively, exports in April-May 2019-20 was up by 2.37 per cent to USD 56 billion. Imports rose by 4.39 per cent to USD 86.75 billion, registering a trade deficit of USD 30.69 billion.

Service sector exports rose by 2.8 per cent to $18.06 billion in the first month of the current fiscal, RBI data showed Friday. The services receipt or exports during April 2018 stood at USD 17.56 billion. Services payments or imports in April 2019 were at USD 11.4 billion, up by 4.6 per cent from USD 10.92 billion in the same month of 2018-19, according to the RBI data on India's international trade in services for April 2019.

The Reserve Bank releases monthly data on India's international trade in services with a lag of around 45 days.

The monthly data on services are provisional and undergo revision when the Balance of Payments (BoP) data are released on a quarterly basis. Meanwhile, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that India is set to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024 and is likely to overtake the UK this year to become the fifth largest economy in the world. The Union minister for housing and urban affairs was speaking at the national council meeting of the CII here.