New Delhi, June 16 (IANS): India's merchandise exports continued to decline for the second month this fiscal, this time down by over 20 percent at $22.35 billion in May from $27.99 billion in the like month of the previous year, official data showed on Tuesday.

Imports also declined by 16.52 percent at $32.76 billion from $39.23 billion during the period under review, as per the figures released by the commerce and industry ministry here.

Cumulatively, for the first two months of this fiscal, exports, at $44.40 billion, were down 17.21 percent over that during April-May 2015.

Similarly, imports in April-May this year at $41.64 billion, also declined by over 7 percent compared to the corresponding months of the last fiscal.

Oil imports dropped 40.97 percent in May to $8.53 billion and non-oil imports also fell by 2.24 percent to $24.21 billion.

Gold imports, however, grew 10.47 percent to $2.42 billion in May.

In its traditionally strong area of services, India recorded a favourable trade balance of $5.7 billion in April, with exports of $13.01 billion and imports worth $7.33 billion.

India posted exports of $310.5 billion in 2014-15, that fell short of the fiscal's export target of $340 billion.