A trade deficit of $13.94 billion was reported as against $7.19 billion in the same month last year. The soaring prices of Oil in international market and weakening of Rupee against the Dollar has been accounted for as the reasons for the upsurge.  

An increasing trend was noticed both in exports as well as imports as compared to the last year,with export soaring to 26.9 percent in August, while the import bill rose to 51.2 percent. The former grew to $16 billion in August from $12.61 billion while latter to $29.94 billion from $19.8 billion.

A substantial portion of the import bill was that of the crude oil import which increased by 76.7 per cent due to the shockingly high prices of oil about $140 to $145 per barrel, thus adding to the account from $6.2 billion in August 2007 to $10.96 billion this year.  

Looking on the positive side, the exports provided some relief to the nation’s balance of payments by soaring upto 35.1 per cent, $81.22 billion while the imports rose by 37.7 per cent, $130.36 billion from April-August 2008.

On this, Mr. Ganesh Gupta, President of Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO), said: “Going by the way the trade deficit is growing, the gap may cross $125 billion by the year end. Exports are showing good signs of growth and it is expected that we would achieve the $200 billion export target set for the current fiscal.”