<div>India's balance of payments was in surplus for a third straight quarter in April-June, even though the current account deficit widened sharply from the previous quarter due to rising imports, data showed on Monday.</div><div> </div><div>The balance of payments was boosted by strong dollar inflows. India has seen a surge in short-term dollar inflows, widely known as portfolio flows, this year as investor confidence improved after the current account gap narrowed and on expectations of a stable government led by industry-friendly Narendra Modi. He was elected prime minister in May.</div><div> </div><div>The balance of payments registered a surplus of $11.2 billion during April-June, up from $7.1 billion in the January-March quarter, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.</div><div> </div><div>A year ago the balance of payments was $300 million in deficit.</div><div> </div><div>The current account deficit for April-June stood at $7.8 billion, sharply higher than $1.3 billion in January-March but narrowing from $21.8 billion a year ago, according to the RBI data.</div><div> </div><div>"It is hard to say how much the non-oil, non-gold imports will go up once recovery picks up," said Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank.</div><div> </div><div>"Also global risk aversions could put pressure on these portfolio inflows which are fickle in nature. So overall one has to have a relative caution on the current account deficit."</div><div> </div><div>Foreign portfolio inflows into India have totalled $30 billion so far this year, compared with just $12 billion for the whole of 2013 when the Indian currency had plunged to a record low on concerns about the wide current account deficit and sluggish economic growth.</div><div> </div><div>In the April-June quarter of 2014, portfolio inflows stood at $12.4 billion compared with an outflow of $200 million a year ago.</div><div> </div><div>India's current account deficit touched a record high of around $88 billion in 2012/13, driven by a massive surge in gold imports.</div><div> </div><div>Gold imports rose to $7 billion in the April-June period of 2014, from $5.3 billion in the previous quarter, but were less than half imports totalling $16.5 billion in the June quarter a year ago.</div><div> </div><div>The trade deficit in the April-June period widened to $34.6 billion, from $30.7 billion a quarter ago but was still sharply lower than $50.5 billion in the same quarter of last year.</div><div> </div><div>(Reuters)</div><div> </div>
