Gold imports in the country declined by 40 per cent to $ 12.3 billion during April-November of the current financial year. covid -19 In the wake of the epidemic, gold imports have come down due to reduced demand. Gold imports have an impact on the current account deficit. According to the Commerce Ministry data, in the same period of the last financial year 2019-20, the import of this gold was 20.6 billion dollars. However, imports grew 2.65 percent to $ 3 billion on an annual basis in November.
Silver imports also declined by 65.7 per cent to $ 752 million during the April-November period in the current financial year. The country’s trade deficit (the difference between imports and exports) was limited to $ 42 billion in April-November of 2020-21 due to the fall in gold-silver imports. It was $ 113.42 billion in the same period a year ago.
The country’s exports declined by 8.74 percent to $ 23.52 billion in November. Imports also declined by 13.32 percent to $ 33.39 billion. This reduced the trade deficit to $ 9.87 billion. Total exports declined mainly due to decline in exports of petroleum, engineering, chemical and key sectors like gems and jewelery.
