New Delhi: The Hindu has reported that India’s foreign trade data for the first eight months of 2022-23 – revised significantly in comparison to the Union commerce ministry’s preliminary estimates – has seen the import bill being scaled up or down by at least $2 billion a month. The report notes the importance of consistency in data and that such wide variations affect policy formulations.The import bill from April to November in 2022 is now estimated to be $493.5 billion. This amount is about $1.7 billion higher than initial estimates.Total merchandise exports are at $298.3 billion, nearly $12 billion higher that originally estimated.Accordingly, the trade deficit of that period is $10 billion lower than the preliminary estimates.The report notes that the import bill for September has seen the sharpest revision, from $61.1 billion to $64.7 billion. September thus emerged with the highest tally and the worst trade deficit of $29.23 billion.According to the earlier estimates India’s trade deficit had seen its record high of $30 billion in July. It was $10 billion in the same period last year. After revision, July’s deficit is now pegged at just $25.6 billion. This number is much lower than the August, September and October deficits.A trade deficit is normally the largest component of a current account deficit. It’s a situation when a country imports more than it exports in a given period of time.India’s current account deficit touched an all-time high of $36.4 billion, or 4.4% of the GDP, in the second quarter of the current fiscal, mainly on account of a widening trade gap, data released by the Reserve Bank of India in late December 2022 has showed.“Underlying the current account deficit in Q2:2022-23 was the widening of the merchandise trade deficit to $83.5 billion from $63 billion in Q1:2022-23 and an increase in net outgo under investment income,” the RBI had said.
