After turning positive in February, non-oil, non-gold imports collapsed in March, belying signs of a revival in domestic demand. Core or non-oil, non-gold imports, which are an indicator of domestic demand in the economy, had reported a positive growth of 2.7% in February, the first time since June last year. But in March, these fell 4.4%, on the back of a 16% year-on-year decline in imports of machine tools, 21% fall in project goods and 5.6% decline in machinery imports. However, consumption goods imports reported an uptick as electronic goods grew 19%.
In March, while overall imports dropped 21.56% to $27.8 billion, oil imports dropped 35.3% to $4.8 billion because of a 40% drop in crude prices during February-March, and non-oil imports declined 18% to $22.9 billion. Gold imports eased to less than $1 billion, or a drop of 88% year-on-year, from an already low $1.4 billion in February, as the government levied 1% excise duty on jewellery in the Budget which led jewellers across the country to go on a strike throughout the month of March. Overall imports in FY16 declined 15.3% to $379.6 billion.
