Tentative global demand pulled India’s goods exports down 8.8% in February to $33.9 billion, while imports fell 8.2% from a year ago to $51.31 billion, according to Commerce Ministry estimates released on Wednesday. This is the third time in five months that merchandise exports have contracted, following an 11.6% drop in October 2022 and a 3% fall in December 2022.

Outbound shipments’ value dropped for as many as 16 of India’s top 30 export items in February, with 14 of them recording close to or higher than double digit declines. This included a 9.7% dip in engineering exports, which have been a bulwark of India’s exports in recent years.

The merchandise trade deficit during February 2023 fell 7% to $17.43 billion, slightly higher than January’s $16.56 billion deficit, which in turn was the lowest in at least 18 months. The first two months of 2023 clocked a sharply lower average deficit than seen through all of 2022, when the monthly deficit hit a record $29.23 billion in September.

“While both oil and non-oil exports contracted, oil exports fell sharply by 28.8%, while imports went below the $52 billion mark, a level not seen for almost a year,” said CareEdge Ratings chief economist Rajani Sinha.

Although gold imports dropped almost 45% from February 2022 levels to $2.63 billion, this constituted a 277% month-on-month jump from January’s imports of the yellow metal.