<h1>Trade deficit widened as imports-notably oil and non oil commodities-outpaced export growth, increasing external imbalance.</h1> Merchandise exports showed double digit growth in dollar terms in December 2017 and for April-December driven by key commodity groups, while imports-especially oil and non oil categories like petroleum, electronics, precious stones, gold and machinery-grew faster, causing the merchandise trade deficit to widen and contributing to a substantially larger overall trade deficit for April-December 2017-18; services recorded a surplus that partly offset the merchandise shortfall.