Trade deficit narrows from seven-month high in June - Reuters India

Tweet Link this Share this NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade deficit narrowed in June to $12.24 billion from a 7-month high, helped by a slowdown in gold imports, which should ease pressure on the current account balance and the beleaguered rupee. Indians' hunger for gold... Email Print People pray as the holy month of Ramadan begins.  Slideshow  Ramadan in detention Jagannath Rath Yatra King Khan Family Window framed » Click here for more slideshows A dock worker walks past a crane on a ship at the port in Mumbai September 6, 2007. Credit: Reuters/Arko Datta/Files NEW DELHI | Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:01pm IST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade deficit narrowed in June to $12.24 billion from a 7-month high, helped by a slowdown in gold imports, which should ease pressure on the current account balance and the beleaguered rupee. Indians' hunger for gold has made it the second biggest item, after crude oil, in the country's import basket. To tamp down gold demand, Indian authorities last month took a slew of measures including a 2 percentage point hike in import duty. Those measures appear to have worked as the growth in gold and silver imports slowed to 22.8 percent year-on-year at $2.45 billion last month. Gold and silver imports had jumped an annual 109 percent in April and May combined as retail buyers tried to take advantage of sliding global prices. Overall, merchandise imports rose about 0.73 percent to $36.03 billion, the trade ministry said on Friday. Exports fell 4.57 percent from a year earlier to $23.79 billion, their second straight monthly fall. (Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Anurag Kotoky; Editing by Jo Winterbottom) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGObvzK4AIfj3COXzfGE2SzlxZySg&url=http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/07/12/india-economy-idINDEE96B05Q20130712

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