New Delhi: Continuing with the revival in exports for the fifth month in a row, Indian merchandise shipments overseas at $20.20 billion in January 2017 registered an uptick of 4.32 per cent over the $21.20 billion exported in January 2015, official data showed on Wednesday.

Imports during the month in consideration at $31.96 billion also marked an increase of 10.70 per cent over the $28.87 billion worth of imports in January last year.

Consequently, the trade deficit in January was higher at $9.84 billion, as compared to the deficit of $7.67 billion during same month of 2016.

"The growth in exports is positive for USA (2.63 per cent), EU (5.47 per cent) and Japan (13.43 per cent), but China has exhibited negative growth of (-1.51 per cent) for November 2016 over the corresponding period of previous year as per latest WTO statistics," a Commerce Ministry release here said.

--IANS