India’s current account deficit widens in Q3
India’s current account deficit widens in Q3
Mumbai: India’s current account deficit widened marginally in the December quarter because of a decline in invisible receipts, even as the trade gap narrowed, central bank data showed on Wednesday. The country’s current account deficit in October-December stood at $12.03 billion (Rs54,255 crore today), compared with $11.94 billion in July-September. The deficit in the year-ago quarter was $11.67 billion, the central bank said.
“Invisibles receipts registered a decline of 3.1% during the quarter (as against an increase of 5.4% in Q3 of 2008-09) mainly on account of decline in business, communication and financial services, and investment income receipts," the Reserve Bank of India said.
Net invisibles in October-December quarter fell to $18.7 billion from $20 billion in the July-September period.
India’s balance of payments surplus in October-December fell sharply to $1.77 billion from $9.42 billion in July-September, due to the fall in the capital account surplus, RBI said. The capital account surplus fell to $13.78 billion in December quarter from $21.36 billion in the September quarter. India’s total external debt rose to $251.4 billion at the end of December, up 11.9% from the estimated debt at the end of March 2009, the finance ministry said in a separate statement on Wednesday.
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