NEW DELHI: India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed to $8.3 billion in the second quarter of the financial year 2023-24, lower than $9.2 billion it recorded in the preceding quarter.
Current account deficit is when a country’s total value of imports exceeds the total value of exports. The CAD numbers are a key indicator for any economy. In the second quarter of the previous financial year, the current account deficit was $30.9 billion.
The RBI said that the underlying reason behind the lower current account deficit in the second quarter was the narrowing of the merchandise trade deficit to $61.0 billion from $78.3 billion. As per the data, the current account deficit in July-September amounted to 1.0 per cent of India’s GDP.
For the first half of 2023-24, the current account deficit more than halved to $17.5 billion (or 1.0 per cent of GDP) from USD 48.8 billion in April-September 2022, or 2.9 per cent of GDP. “India’s current account deficit moderated to 1.0 per cent of GDP in H1:2023-24 from 2.9 per cent of GDP in H1:2022-23 on the back of a lower merchandise trade deficit”, the RBI said. (ANI)
