India’s current account deficit widens to $3.4bn in Q4, lowered on sequential basis

As per the data released by the RBI on June 15,2017, for the quarter ended March 2017, India’s current account deficit has widened to $3.4 bn (0.6 per cent) as compared to $0.3 bn (0.1per cent) last year because of an increase in the merchandise trade deficit, but still lower than $8.0 bn (1.4 per cent) in the Oct-Dec quarter, on sequential basis.

In the January-March quarter, merchandise trade deficit rose to $29.7 bn compared to $ 24.8 bn a year ago. While in Jan- Mar, the service trade surplus was $ 17.6 bn from $16.1 bn last year.

For the year ended March 2017, the current account deficit narrowed to $ 15.2 billion (0.7 per cent) in comparison to $22.1 billion (1.1 per cent) in 2015-16 due to decrease in the merchandise trade deficit from $130.1 bn to $112.4 bn.

Net foreign direct investment in the quarter ended March 2017 was $5.0 billion, lower than $ 9.7 bn in the quarter ended December 2016 and for the whole year, net FDI was $ 35.6 bn.

In the quarter ended March 2017, net portfolio investment shows an inflow of $ 10.8 bn against the net outflow of $1.5 billion previous year. And for the full year, net inflow is $7.6 bn compared to the outflow of $4.1 bn last year.

At last, the balance of payment for the quarter ended March 2017 saw surplus of $7.3 billion against the surplus of $3.3 billion last year and for the full year till March 2017, the balance of payment was $21.6 billion.