NEW DELHI: According to persons with knowledge of the situation, Bloomberg News claimed on Wednesday that a calculation error was the cause of a spike in gold imports that caused India’s trade deficit to reach a record in November and drove the rupee to an all-time low.
According to the article, the error resulted from officials double-counting gold shipments in warehouses after a change in technique in July.
According to the Bloomberg story, which cited sources, gold imports may have been overestimated by as much as 50 tons, or nearly 30% of all imports of the precious metal that month.
It further stated that if a mistake is found, the trade numbers will probably be updated, which may result in a revision of the foreign currency rate.
A Reuters request for comment was not immediately answered by the Indian government.
According to a Reuters survey, the nation’s merchandise trade imbalance increased to a record $37.84 billion in November, according to statistics issued by the commerce ministry. This amount was far greater than the $23.9 billion predicted by analysts.
According to data, inbound gold shipments more than doubled from $7.13 billion in October to a record high of $14.8 billion last month.
