"The lower CAD was primarily on account of a contraction in the trade deficit contributed by both a rise in exports and a decline in imports," RBI said in a statement. CAD narrowed sharply to $7.8 billion (1.7 per cent of GDP) in the first quarter of the 2014-15 fiscal, from $21.8 billion (4.8 per cent of GDP) in the year-ago period.
However, it was higher than $1.2 billion (0.2 per cent of GDP) in the fourth (January-March) quarter of the previous fiscal, 2013-14.
Decline in imports was primarily led by a steep 57.2 per cent fall in gold imports, which amounted to $7 billion -- significantly lower than USD 16.5 billion in the April-June quarter of 2013-14, RBI said.
Trade deficit contracted by about 31.4 per cent to $ 34.6 billion in Q1 2014-15, from $50.5 billion in Q1, 2013-14.
Exports increased by 10.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2014-15 to $81.7 billion. Imports moderated by 6.5 per cent to $116.4 billion. The CAD, which is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign currency, had touched a record high of $ 87.8 billion (4.8 per cent) in 2012-13 fiscal mainly on account of steep increase in gold imports.
It had narrowed to $32.4 billion (1.7 per cent) for the entire 2013-14 fiscal after government imposed import restrictions on the precious metal.