January Trade stats

Exports rose at a modest pace for the third month running, but the sharp drop in imports led by gold helped bring the trade deficit below the $10-billion mark in January, which will further improve the current account deficit. Exports rose 3.79% to $26.75 billion in January from a year ago, moderately ahead of the 3.5% rise recorded in December.
Imports dropped at the fastest pace in four months in January, declining 18.07% to $36.6 billion because of a 77% plunge in bullion imports, helping narrow the trade deficit to $9.92 billion in January from $10.14 billion in December
India’s currency depreciated sharply last year amid concerns over funding the current account deficit after the US Federal Reserve announced its intention to wind down its $85 billion a month bond purchases. The current account deficit had swelled to a record 4.8% of GDP in the year ended March 2013.
The US Fed has already brought down bond purchases by $20 billion in two tranches but the Indian rupee has held steady because of the much-improved CAD after government took measures to discourage gold imports while low economic growth kept other imports depressed.
Experts see a pickup in exports in the months ahead because of the recovery in domestic markets.
Taiwan’s exports fell 5.3% in January, whereas the consensus for China is 0.1% growth.
On a cumulative basis, exports touched $257 billion, up 5.7% from the year earlier. Exports will need to grow by about 13% in the remaining two months to achieve the targeted $325 billion.