India's July trade gap narrows to $5.99 billion as imports, exports continue to fall news.

India's exports dropped to $13.623 billion (Rs66,041 crore) in July as the country's exports continued to wilt for the tenth straight month. Imports during the month also fell, which brought down the country's trade deficit to $5.99 billion from $12.15 billion during July 2008.

Exports during the month was down 28.4 per cent in dollar terms and down 19.0 per cent in rupee terms, compared to the level of $19.036 billion (Rs81,548 crore) during July 2008.

Cumulative value of exports for the April-July 2009 period stood at $49.651 billion (Rs2,41,735 crore) as against $75.289 billion (Rs3,15,978 crore), registering a negative growth of 34.1 per cent in dollar terms and 23.5 per cent in rupee terms over the same period last year.

India's imports during July 2009 were down at $19.621 billion (Rs95,118 crore), representing a decrease of  37.1 per cent in dollar terms and a 28.8 per cent decline in rupee terms over the level of imports worth $31.189  billion (Rs1,33,609 crore) in July 2008.

Cumulative value of imports for the April-July 2009 period stood at $78.564 billion (Rs3,82,422 crore) as against $116.382 billion (Rs4,88,668 crore), registering a negative growth 32.5 per cent in dollar terms and 21.7 per cent in rupee terms over the same period last year.

Oil imports during July 2009 were valued at $5.638 billion which was 55.5  per cent lower than oil imports valued at $12.675 billion in the corresponding period last year. Oil imports during April-July 2009 were down 48 per cent at $21.964 billion compared to imports worth $42.217 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports during July 2009 were estimated at $13.983 billion, which was 24.5 per cent lower than non-oil imports of $18.514 billion in July 2008.  Non-oil imports during the April- July 2009 period were down 23.7 per cent at $56.600 billion against such imports valued at $74.165 billion in April-July 2008.

The trade deficit for April-July 2009 was estimated at $28.913 billion, which was lower than the deficit of $41.093 billion during April-July 2008.