RISING TRADE DEFICIT, DEPENDENCY ON CHINA CAUSES FOR CONCERN

THE good news is that India’s merchandise trade deficit fell to $27.1 billion in February from the previous month’s $34.7 billion.

- 

The bad news is that it has almost doubled over a year, from $14.4 billion in February 2025. The gap widened because of a year-on-year spike in imports of almost a quarter to $63.7 billion, led by gold, silver and electronics, while exports edged down by less than 1 percent to $36.6 billion. The seemingly endless demand for gold drove up its imports by 218 percent to $7.4 billion, while the increasing use of silver in industrial processes pushed up the white metal’s imports to $1.6 billion. Rising oil and gas imports, higher logistics costs and sluggish goods exports aggravated the imbalance.