India's November exports contracted 4.85 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $32.11 billion, and the trade deficit widened to a record high of $37.84 billion, on the back of rising gold imports. The decline came after recording double-digit growth in October.

Imports rose 27 percent year-on-year to a record $69.95 billion in November, driven by large shipments of vegetable oils, fertilizers and silver, according to Commerce Ministry data.

Gold imports in the month under review rose to a record high of $14.8 billion in November 2023 to $3.5 billion.

Overall, during April-November this fiscal, exports increased by 2.17 percent to $284.31 billion and imports by 8.35 percent to $486.73 billion.

The trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports, widened to $202.42 billion in April-November 2023 from $170.98 billion in April-November 2023.

Announcing the data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said fluctuations in oil prices affect exports.

Shipments of petroleum products fell 50 percent last month to $3.71 billion. Even in the first eight months of this fiscal, these exports declined by 19 percent year-on-year to $44.6 billion.

However, the secretary said that non-oil exports continue to show healthy growth, which along with the services sector would help the country cross the $800 billion export total by the end of this fiscal.

Regarding the trade deficit and large imports, the secretary said that there is no need to worry because the country is growing.

He further said that the ministry is targeting 20 countries and six service and manufacturing sectors to increase IT/ITeS internal shipments. In these 20 nations, there is a huge potential to increase exports and to achieve this, the ministry is in touch with Indian missions abroad.

The ministry is calling a meeting with these missions for January next year. "We will come up with a strategy to improve exports in 20 countries," said Barthwal.

According to estimates, exports of services rose to $35.67 billion in November 2024, compared to $28.11 billion in November 2023. These exports hit a record high of $34.31 billion in October, a 22.3% year-on-year increase.

Crude oil imports rose 7.9 percent last month to $16.11 billion.

In terms of exports, the main sectors that showed negative growth in the month under review were petroleum pulp, iron ore, coal, gems and jewellery, chemicals and handicrafts.

However, the sectors that have seen positive growth are textiles, engineering goods, electronics, pharmaceuticals and spices.

Raw cotton waste used in textiles, imports increased from $30.61 million in November 2023 to $170.73 million last month.