Thursday, 01 May , 2008, 18:50 
  
New Delhi: India's trade deficit has widened by a whopping 34 per cent - to an estimated $80.4 billion for 2007-08 from $59.32 billion in 2006-07, according to official data released Thursday.

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The country achieved exports of $155.51 billion against the set target of $160 billion for 2007-08. The export target for the current fiscal is $200 billion.

“We hope to boost our exports more, but at the moment with high oil import prices, we have to live with that,” G.K. Pillai, Secretary of the ministry of commerce and industry, told reporters here.

“Textile and other traditional sectors have not done well … we expect these to do well (in 2008-09) because rupee is relatively stable. From SEZ sector, exports have gone up to Rs.660 billion compared to Rs.320 billion last year,” Pillai added.

For the last fiscal, imports were valued at $235.91 billion as against $185.74 billion registering a growth of 27.01 per cent over the same period of last year.

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Oil imports during 2007-08 stood at $77.03 billion, up 35.28 per cent from $56.95 billion in the corresponding period of last year.