Data released by the Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry on Monday evening showed that year-on-year exports for the month of September declined by 3.52 percent to $32.62 billion as compared to $33.81 billion in September 2021.
The trade deficit in September also widened to $26.72 billion, compared to $22.47 billion in September 2021.
While the year-on-year exports for the month of September declined from $33.81 billion last September to $32.61 billion, the value of imports witnessed an increase from $56.29 billion last September to $59.35 billion last month, as per official figures.
The commerce ministry data also showed that the trade deficit for the month of September was slightly lower than in August, when it stood at $28.68 billion.
The commerce ministry said that exports in the April-September 2022 period stood at $378.53 billion, which was 37.89 percent higher than exports during the April-September 2021 period. However, data showed that India’s trade deficit during the period almost doubled to $149.47 billion from $76.25 billion in April-September 2021.
The ministry said that a slowdown in rich economies owing to high commodity and fuel prices in the wake of the Ukraine crisis was a major factor behind a slump in Indian exports.
"Export in certain sectors has seen a decline on account of slowdown in some developed economies and a consequential slowdown in demands," it said.
"Certain measures to contain domestic inflation and domestic food security concerns have also impacted exports," the statement added.
Concerns over high inflation driven by high fuel and commodity prices led the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.90 percent last week.
The hike in the repo rate was the fourth by the Indian central bank since May, as the retail inflation surged from 6.71 percent in July to 7 percent in August, as per the latest official statistics released this month.
Under the Monetary Police Framework Agreement between the RBI and the federal government, the apex bank has been mandated to keep the inflation below 6 percent.
The RBI had last week also lowered India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for financial year 2022-23 to 7 percent from a projected 7.2 percent last month.