Discourage gold imports to maintain BoP: Survey

"There is scope therefore to discourage unproductive imports like gold and consumer goods to restore balance," it added. India`s gold imports went up by 64 per cent to USD 38.3 billion during the April-October period of this fiscal. BoP summarises transactions between a country and the rest of the world, and the account classifies transactions under two heads - capital account and current account. In the second quarter, BoP showed only a marginal surplus of USD 276 million compared to USD 3.29 billion a year-ago.

During the first quarter, BoP surplus was at USD 5.44 billion, taking the total account showing an overflow of USD 5.7 billion for the first half. The survey pointed out that high trade and current account deficits, together with high share of volatile FII flows are making India?s BoP vulnerable to external shocks. "Greater attention therefore has to be given to improving the composition of capital flows towards FDI," it said.