India's exports maintained sterling performance in August, growing year-on-year by 44.2 per cent to 24.3 billion dollars despite problems in major economies of the west. Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said in New Delhi today that except iron ore, other sectors including engineering, chemicals and textiles have shown robust growth. He said that imports too grew by a fast pace of 41.8 per cent to 38.4 billion dollars.

This leaves a trade deficit of USD 14.1 billion for August. He said that for the cumulative period of April-August this fiscal, the shipments increased by 54.2 per cent to 134.5 billion dollars, while imports expanded by 40.4 per cent to 189.4 billion dollars.

He said that Merchandise exports have been growing at an impressive speed in the current fiscal, shrugging off uncertainty in the US the debt problems in several European nations.