Government revises gold imports downward by $5 billion in November

NEW DELHI: The commerce department has revised downward the value of gold imports by over $5 billion to $9.8 billion in November, while also lowering the number for April-November from $49 billion estimated last month to $37.4 billion.

As a result, total imports for the eight-month period in 2024-25 are now pegged at $472.5 billion, compared to $486.7 billion estimated earlier. Similarly, imports in Nov have been revised to $63.9 billion, as against nearly $70 billion when quick estimates were released in mid-Dec.

While gold imports remained high in Nov - nearly three times the Nov 2023 level of $3.4 billion - the revisions mean that the month did not see record imports, as estimated earlier. Instead, it will now be the fourth highest. Besides, the trade deficit will now be pegged at around $31.7 billion compared with the earlier estimate of $37.9 billion, which was an all-time high.

The revisions mark a correction in the way the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics had interpreted customs data, with the commerce department agency seen to have done some double counting of numbers related to gold moved out of special economic zones. So far, government has refrained from commenting on the matter and released the revisions on the DGCI&S website on Wednesday.

"If there was a significant error in gold import data, could similar discrepancies exist in other commodity figures or for other time periods? Govt must proactively review trade data to ensure that this is an isolated case and not indicative of a broader data accuracy problem," research body GTRI said in a note.