India’s September trade deficit in goods at $2.91 billion

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India posted a trade deficit of $2.91 billion in goods in September, data released by the government showed on Friday.

Merchandise imports contracted 19.60% in September to $30.31 billion from a year ago while exports rose 5.27% to $27.40 billion, data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.

Total merchandise imports fell by 40.06% to $148.69 billion during April-September while exports were down 21.43% from the year-ago period to $125.06 billion, the data showed.

(This story corrects period in third paragraph)

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Catherine Evans)