(Bloomberg) -- India’s trade deficit narrowed more than estimated, as imports declined for a seventh straight month.

The gap between exports and imports was at $11.25 billion in December, compared with $12.1 billion in November, data released Wednesday by the Commerce Ministry show. That was narrower than the median estimate of $11.6 billion in a Bloomberg survey of 22 economists.

Key Insights

• Imports declined by 8.8% from a year ago to $38.6 billion, compared with a 12.7% drop in November, while exports decreased 1.8% to $27.36 billion, against a 0.3% decline the previous month
• Manufacturing industry signaled a modestly brighter outlook toward the end of 2019, with the purchasing managers index rising to 52.7 in December from 51.2 a month ago
• That still doesn’t signal a favorable growth outlook, with the statistics office forecasting the economy to expand 5% in the year through March -- the slowest pace since 2009

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• Oil imports dropped 0.8% from a year earlier to $10.7 billion, while gold imports fell 3.9% to $2.47 billion
• To read the full statement on trade numbers, click here

(Updates with gold import data under Get More section. An earlier version of this story was corrected to say gap narrowed.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Vrishti Beniwal in New Delhi at vbeniwal1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Subramaniam Sharma, Karthikeyan Sundaram

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