New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) India's exports contracted for the 13th month in a row, dipping about 15 per cent in December to USD 22.2 billion due to steep decline in engineering and petroleum shipments.

The total exports in 2015-16 will thus be lower than the previous fiscal's figure of USD 310.5 billion.

"On the same trend, it will certainly be much lower than the last year (2014-15)," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said.

There is a global slowdown and India is well integrated with the world economy and there would an impact of the slowdown on the exports, she told reporters here.

"There can be no effort to say that there has not been a decline in merchandise exports. This is the third year of consecutive slowdown," she said.

Imports shrank too - down 3.88 per cent to USD 33.96 billion in December on yearly basis.

Gold imports shot up however pushing up the trade deficit to a 4-month high of USD 11.66 billion, as against USD 9.17 billion recorded in December 2014. The overall trade gap in August last year was USD 12.47 billion.

Gold imports rose to USD 3.80 billion last month, as against USD 1.36 billion in December 2014.

In December 2015, shipments of petroleum products shrank 47.69 per cent to USD 2.36 billion, year-on-year, while that of iron ore declined by 69.54 per cent to 21.24 million.

Last month also witnessed a decline in exports of engineering products -- down 15.68 per cent at USD 5.82 billion. Gems and jewelery exports dipped by 7.75 per cent.

The cumulative exports during the April-December period declined by 18.06 per cent to USD 196.6 billion.

Imports too dipped by 15.87 per cent to USD 295.8 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 99.2 billion. The trade gap was USD 111.68 billion in April-December 2014-15.

The Commerce Secretary, however, expressed hope that the incentives announced by the ministry including the 3 per cent interest subsidy would help in supporting exporters.