72 : India’s Trade Deficit: Increasing Fast but Still Manageable
Amitendu Palit
7 July 2008
India’s trade deficit, which reflects the excess of its merchandise imports over exports, has
reached 7.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). According to the Balance of
Payments (BOP) statistics for the year 2007-08 recently released by the Reserve Bank of
India, the deficit has increased from US$63.2 billion in 2006-07 to US$90.1 billion in 2007-
08. This increase of almost US$27 billion has resulted in the deficit swelling from 6.9 percent
of GDP in 2006-07 to 7.7 percent in 2007-08.