NEW DELHI- India posted a trade deficit of $6.77 billion in goods in August, data released by the government showed on Tuesday.

Merchandise imports contracted 26.04% in August to $29.47 billion from a year ago while exports fell 12.66% to $22.70 billion, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.

Total merchandise imports fell by 43.73% to $118.38 billion during April-August while exports were down 26.65% from the year-ago period to $97.66 billion, the data showed.

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Andrew Heavens) ((Aftab.Ahmed@thomsonreuters.com; +911149548060;))