Led by engineering goods, petroleum products and gems and jewellery, India’s merchandise exports increased for the eleventh consecutive month in October and grew 42.33% on year at $35.47 billion. Official data released on Monday showed a 62.48% rise in imports leaving a trade deficit of $19.9 billion compared to $9.15 billion and the 14-year high trade gap of $22.59 billion in September.

Imports rose $55.37 billion last month and gold imports rose 104% at $5.1 billion.

“Non-oil, non-gold imports surged further to $35.8 billion in October, with a broad-based uptick across various commodity groups reflecting rising commodity prices, the expectation of healthy festive demand and a turnaround in domestic economic activity,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at

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In the first seven months of the fiscal, exports increased 54.5% at $232.58 billion while imports rose 78.7% at $331.29 billion.

Value of non-petroleum exports in October was $30.27 billion, registering a growth of 29.63% over the same period in 2020 and a growth of 32.84% at $22.79 billion in October 2019, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

Value of non-petroleum imports was $40.94 billion, up 45.82% year-on-year and 44.87% higher than October 2019.