ANSWER: USD 7.51 billion
Explanation:
Falling prices of the precious metal in global as well as domestic markets is seen as a contributory factor for the decline. Gold imports were pegged at USD 7.51 billion in April-June 2015. Inbound shipments contracted for the fifth consecutive month in June by 38.5 percent to USD 1.20 billion, as per data released by the Commerce Ministry.
- Contractions in imports helped to lower trade deficit to USD 8.11 billion in the previous month as against USD 10.82 billion in June 2015.
- India is one of the leading gold importers in the world and imports take care of demand of jewellery industry.
- India’s CAD narrowed to 1.3 percent of GDP in Q3 of 2015-2016 as against 1.5 percent in the same period of the previous year, on account of lower trade deficit.
- Government has announced launch of 4 tranche of sovereign gold bond scheme from the day to check the demand for physical gold.
- It has netted 3.1 tonnes of idle household as well as temple gold under the monetisation scheme since November.
- Silver imports too fell to USD 249.39 million in June as against USD 342.37 million in the same month in 2015.
- Shipments of pearls and semi-precious stones displayed a decline of 13.52 percent in June
