New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) India's current account deficit declined to USD 10.5 billion or 1.2 per cent of the GDP in October-December quarter from USD 11.4 billion in the previous three months and USD 16.8 billion a year back, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday.

Net FDI inflow at USD 8.5 billion during April-December 2023 was lower than USD 21.6 billion during April-December 2022, it said.

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Also, accretion of foreign exchange reserves (on a BoP basis) was at USD 6.0 billion in October-December (third quarter of current financial year that ends on March 31) compared to an accretion of USD 11.1 billion a year ago.

The merchandise trade deficit at USD 71.6 billion was marginally higher than USD 71.3 billion during the third quarter of 2022-23.

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Services exports grew by 5.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis on the back of rising exports of software, business and travel services. Net services receipts increased both sequentially and from a year ago that helped cushion the current account deficit.

In the financial account, foreign direct investment recorded a net inflow of USD 4.2 billion, more than double of net inflow of USD 2.0 billion in Q3 of 2022-23.

Foreign portfolio investment recorded a net inflow of USD 12.0 billion in the quarter, higher than USD 4.6 billion a year back.

External commercial borrowings to India recorded a net outflow of USD 2.6 billion in October-December as compared to a net outflow of USD 2.5 billion a year ago.

Non-resident deposits recorded a higher net inflow of USD 3.9 billion than USD 2.6 billion a year ago.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)