India's exports grew 3.49 per cent in December to 26.3 billion dollar, while imports dipped 15.25 per cent to 36.4 billion dollar during the month.

Commerce Secretary S R Rao said export growth slowed mainly because of a drop in petroleum exports.

However, he said lower imports helped to narrow the trade deficit to USD 10.1 billion in December compared with USD 17.5 billion in the same period of 2012.

Gold and silver imports in December dropped to 1.77 billion dollars from 5.6 billion dollar a year earlier.