India's exports contracted by 15.88 per cent to USD 32.25 billion in July this year due to global demand slowdown and fall in the outbound shipments of petroleum, gems and jewellery, and other key sectors, according to official data released on Monday.

Imports during the month also declined by 17 per cent to USD 52.92 billion from USD 63.77 billion in July 2022. This led to narrowing of trade deficit to USD 20.67 billion as gainst USD 25.43 billion in July 2022.

During April-July this fiscal, the overall exports dipped by 14.5 per cent to USD 136.22 billion.

Imports during the period declined by 13.79 per cent to USD 213.2 billion.

Briefing media about the data, commerce secretary Sunil Barthawal said that the global headwinds are still there.

There is decline in exports and imports of several countries including the key Indian destinations like the US and Europe. In both these regions, imports are declining continuously.

However, he expressed hope that India's exports of goods and services during 2023-24 would be higher than that of the previous fiscal year's of USD 776 billion.

Barthwal also said that this year's exports should be looked from a point of view that in last two years India's exports growth rate was highest. So the base was high.

Sectors which are doing good include electronics and that means "India is integrating into global value chains and moving up in value chains", the secretary said.

At the import front, gold imports increased by 2.7 per cent to USD 13.2 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal as against USD 12.86 billion in April-July 2022.

Oil imports during the period declined by 23.4 per cent to USD 55 billion as against 71.74 billion a year ago.

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