NEW DELHI: Continuing with the revival in exports for the fifth month in a row, Indian merchandise shipments overseas at $22.12 billion in January 2017 registered an uptick of 4.32 pct over the $21.20 billion exported in January 2015, official data showed on Wednesday.

Imports during the month in consideration at $31.96 billion also marked an increase of 10.70 pct over the $28.87 billion worth of imports in January last year.

Consequently, the trade deficit in January was higher at $9.84 billion, as compared to the deficit of $7.67 billion during same month of 2016.

"The growth in exports is positive for USA (2.63 pct), EU (5.47 pct) and Japan (13.43 pct), but China has exhibited negative growth of (-1.51 pct) for November 2016 over the corresponding period of previous year as per latest WTO statistics," a Commerce Ministry release here said.

Cumulatively for the April-January period, exports rose marginally by 1.09 pct in dollar terms at $220.9 billion, as against exports of $218.5 billion over the same period last year.

"Non-petroleum exports in January 2017 were valued at $19.42 billion against $19.11 billion in January 2016, an increase of 1.6 pct," a statement here said

Cumulative imports for April-January were worth more than $307.3 billion, which was a 5.81 pct fall from the over $326.3 billion worth imports recorded for the same period of the previous fiscal.

With global oil prices climbing back to nearly $55 a barrel, India's oil imports during January were valued at $8.14 billion, which was a massive 61.07 pct jump over oil imports valued at $5.05 billion in the corresponding month of 2016.

Non-oil imports in January were static, increasing by 0.01 pct to $23.82 billion, from $23.81 billion in the same month of last year.

The merchandise trade deficit cumulatively for April-January, however, declined by 19.82 pct to $86.39 billion, as against $107.7 billion in the same period of 2015-16.

As per Reserve Bank of India data on Wednesday, services exports during December 2016 were valued at $13.80 billion, while imports stood at 8.29 billion, resulting in a positive trade balance of $5.5 billion.

Taking merchandise and services together, overall trade deficit for April-January is estimated at $38.07 billion, which is an impressive 29.7 pct fall from the level of $54.19 billion during the same period last year.

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