India's merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $15.6 billion in March from $18.71 billion in February, thanks to a sharp fall in merchandise imports. The trade deficit stood at $18.96 billion in March 2023.

At $15.6 billion, the March 2024 trade gap is the lowest in 11 months. The last time the deficit was narrower was in April 2023 when it came in at $15.24 billion.

While trade deficit narrowed in March, exports dropped slightly by 0.3 percent from the year-ago period to $41.68 billion while imports fell by a much larger 5.98 percent at $57.28 billion, the commerce ministry said on April 15.

For the previous financial year in entirety, India's merchandise trade deficit was down 9.33 percent on-year at $240.17 billion, with exports for the period at $437.06 billion, exhibiting a fall of 3.11 percent while imports dropped by a sharper 5.41 percent at $677.24 billion.

"The previous fiscal year was difficult from a trade point of view since not only did the Ukraine-Russia conflict continue, but other conflicts came up. There were huge issues with Red Sea as well as recessionary trends globally. But India has beaten all the odds," Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told the media.

For the month of March 2024, under merchandise exports, 17 of the 30 key sectors showed positive growth in March 2024 as compared to same period last year such as electronic items, drugs and pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, among others.

And in terms of imports, 18 out of 30 key sectors exhibited negative growth in March 2024. These included gold, fertilisers, leather products (-25.67 percent), iron and steel petroleum items.