Mumbai, Nov 1 (PTI) : Terming the widening current account deficit(CAD) as a "major concern", Reserve Bank Deputy Governor HR Khan today called for special efforts to drive up exports so that this will not deteriorate further. "We are a current account-deficit country and this is a major concern," Khan told an Engineering Export Promotion Council gathering here late this evening. "We are a balance of payments-stressed country. We have to promote exports to see that this is not going out of hand," he added. Despite galloping merchandise exports this fiscal, the current account deficit has been on an upward spiral on rising oil imports, whose price has been on the rise coupled with a falling rupee. Last year the CAD stood at 2.6 percent of the GDP and it is expected to be a tad more than that this fiscal. The Commerce Ministry today reported a robust 36.3 percent rise in September exports while the import number rose 17.2 percent to USD 24.8 billion and USD 34.5 billion, respectively, leaving a trade deficit of USD 9.7 billion. The government has set target of USD 300 billion from exports this fiscal. During H1, exports grew by 52 percent to USD 160 billion from USD 105.2 billion in the same period last year, while imports expanded by 32.4 percent to USD 233.5 billion, leaving a trade gap of USD 73.4 billion for the half-year. Oil imports grew by 14.62 percent to USD 9.2 billion in September, while non-oil imports rose by 18.17 percent to USD 25.3 billion in the reporting.
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