India's current account deficit narrowed to USD 8.3 billion in the second quarter of the financial year 2023-24, lower than the USD 9.2 billion it recorded in the preceding quarter.
A current account deficit is when a country's total value of imports exceeds the total value of exports. The Current Account Deficit (CAD) numbers are a key indicator for any economy.
In the second quarter of the previous financial year, the current account deficit was USD 30.9 billion.
The Reserve Bank of India (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 USD 61.0 billion from USD 78.3 billion.
As per the data, the current account deficit from July to September amounted to 1.0 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP).
For the first half of 2023-24, the current account deficit more than halved to USD 17.5 billion (or 1.0 per cent of GDP) from USD 48.8 billion in April to 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)